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The Mysterious Survival Of The Policy Against Informed Consent Liability For Hospitals, Robert Gatter

All Faculty Scholarship

The role of hospitals in managing the informed consent process for hospital-based treatments has expanded substantially over the last several decades. Most recently, many hospitals have installed multi-media platforms designed to provide a patient with basic information about a recommended procedure, including its associated risks, and to record the patient’s consent to or rejection of the procedure. Yet, despite the substantial control that hospitals exercise over the informed consent process, state courts routinely dismiss informed consent claims brought against hospitals, holding that only physicians have the training and expertise to satisfy informed consent obligations and therefore that only physicians may …