The Impact of Using Electronic Consents on Documentation of Language-Concordant Surgical Consent for Patients with Limited English Proficiency

Background

Although access to a professional medical interpreter is federally mandated, surgeons report underutilization during informed consent. Improvement requires understanding the extent of the lapses. Adoption of electronic consent (eConsent) has been associated with improvements in documentation and identification of practice improvement opportunities. The authors evaluated the impact of the transition from paper to eConsent on language-concordant surgical consent delivery for patients with limited English proficiency (LEP).

Methods

The study period (February 8, 2023, to June 14, 2023) corresponds to the period immediately following the institutional adoption of eConsents. Inclusion criteria included age > 18 years, documented preferred language other than English, and self-signed eConsent form. The authors assessed documentation of language-concordant interpreter-mediated verbal consent discussion and delivery of the written surgical consent form in a language-concordant template. Performance was compared to a preimplementation baseline derived from monthly random audits of paper consents between January and December 2022.

Results

A total of 1,016 eConsent encounters for patients with LEP were included, with patients speaking 49 different languages, most commonly Spanish (46.5%), Chinese (22.1%), and Russian (6.8%). After the implementation of eConsent, overall documentation of language-concordant interpreter-mediated consents increased from 56.9% to 83.9% (p < 0.001), although there was variation between surgical services and between languages, suggesting that there is still likely room for improvement. Most patients (94.1%) whose preferred language had an associated translated written consent template (Spanish, Chinese, Russian, Arabic), received a language-concordant written consent.

Conclusion

The transition to eConsent was associated with improved documentation of language-concordant informed consent in surgery, both in terms of providing written materials in the patient's preferred language and in the documentation of interpreter use, and allowed for the identification of areas to target for practice improvement with interpreter use.