Using Clinipad Treatment Consent Forms

Purpose:

Practices need to manage a variety of written and verbal consent processes.

From v12.1 Providers can capture some of the written consent form signatures required from patients directly by means of Clinipad in the clinic.

Consent Forms follow the same principle and procedure as Terms and Conditions. The practice saves custom text to a Clinipad Consent Form that a Clinician presents to patients for signing on Clinipad. The signed result is then available as a PDF file and can be viewed in the chart screen.

Providers manage this procedure through a Consents tab in the Charting screen. This Consent tab is only applicable to Clinipad practitioners. It provides a way for practitioners to replace assigned paper consent processes and move over to electronically stored documents.

It is only available through the chart tab and there is no equivalent process for paper users.

The Consent activity tab can be configured to display on the chart tab for all Providers where the practice has Clinipad installed.

Features:

• Providers use a Consents tab in the Charting screen. This tab area provides the following functionality:
  • Review the historical signed Consent Forms. When selected for review, the signed document will open in a PDF viewer, where the reviewer can inspect it, check the signature validity, or print a physical signed form.
  • Configure new Consent templates and edit or delete existing Consent templates by means of the Setup (spanner) button - see Configuring Clinipad Consent Forms.

    A template is made up of a framework PRX over which text is positioned in preset areas. This limits the template to only basic text formatting (text, spaces and carriage returns), as for the terms and conditions document.

  • Open a further Select a Clinipad Device window to manage the signing of consents related to current treatment.
• A Select a Clinipad Device window enables the following functionality:
  • If there are open COTS/Treatment Plans, Providers first specify the COT / Treatment Plan to which the Consents apply. If there are none open, the functions apply by default to the current treatment in the chart tab.
  • Provider selects specific Consent forms associated with the selected COT / Treatment Plans.
  • Provider selects a Clinipad device.
  • Provider sends the selected Consents for display on the selected Clinipad device.
• The Provider issues the Clinipad, on which the Patient then digitally signs the selected Consents.
• The Provider returns the Clinipad device and the signed Consents appear in the Consents tab list, where they can be reviewed if necessary.

Benefits:

• This feature not only provides a convenient means of capture at the point of need, it also removes the complexities of paper storage and retrieval.
• Practices can use these forms to prove that the patient has seen and understood what a treatment involves, what the associated risks were, and what post operative care was required.

Requirements:

• EXACT v12.1 or later.
• Clinipad installed and functional.
• A template must be set for the Consent form in printing setup.

  A default stationery template is OK, but if not configured the practice needs to pick a template and assign it to the Consent Form (SOEStd1.277) in printing setup.

• For each Provider a Consents tab must be configured to display in the Charting screen, in either the Upper tab or the Lower tab.
• Clinipad Consent Forms must be configured by means of the Setup (spanner) button in the Consents tab.

See also: Configuring Clinipad Consent Forms

To use Clinipad Consent Forms (Provider with a patient in the clinic)

1. Create Course(s) of Treatment / Treatment Plan(s) for the patient.
2. Check the Consents tab to see what Consents the patient has previously completed, and if these have any bearing on the current treatment (for example the patient may have previously signed a general practice consent).

   If you don't see a Consents tab, refer to Configuring Clinipad Consent Forms for instructions.

3. Select the Sign Consents button:

   

   This opens the Select a Clinipad Device window:
   

   	With a single COT / Treatment Plan:	With open COTs / Treatment Plans:

   Proceed as follows:

   

   1. To simply sign a general consent, unrelated to this COT / Treatment Plan, simply leave this Select Consents box blank.

      If you wish to apply the consent form to a particular treatment, select a COT / Treatment Plan (there could be multiple in your chart, as in the above screenshot example)

   2. Check (tick) which Consents to send to Clinipad for this patient, up to a maximum of four.

   You can send a maximum of four consent forms at a time to a Clinipad session for signing.
   If you select more than four the Send box will grey out.

   1. Select the Clinipad device on which you want the patient to sign the Consent/s.
   2. Select the Send button to send the selected Consents for the selected COT to the Clinipad.

      This will start a clinipad session.

      You will see a message to return the Clinipad before the data in the forms can be saved:

      

4. Issue the Clinipad to the patient.

   The Clinipad will have the Consent forms listed, with one button for each form. If necessary explain how to open, read and sign the Consents:

   

5. When the patient has signed, return the Clinipad session through the drop down on the Clinipad workspace icon, button, the main window or appointment book tab:

   

   On Clinipad return EXACT saves the signed forms to a folder and creates a record in the Consents tab. This record displays the date, Template name, COT/Treatment Plan and User (Provider):

   You can review the signed document by double clicking it, or highlighting it and clicking the View button:

   

   The signed document will open in a PDF viewer, where you can inspect it, check the signature validity, print and file a physical signed Consent Form or Email/Save the PDF.

6. For any open COTs that require further Consent form signatures, click the Sign Consents button again and repeat the above procedure.

Storage:

PDF Consents are stored in the EXACT data folder and included in EXACT data backups: