Electronic Signature Pads - Making Informed Consent Even Worse

More healthcare facilities are having patients sign consent and other forms with an electronic signature pad. Unfortunately, the patient often does not see the document to which their signature pertains. Nor are they provided a copy of the materials.

One law firm analyzed the issue by looking to court treatment of other consumer agreements. But this analysis is incomplete, because the validity of treatment consent is governed by two separate legal doctrines.

If the patient signs the pad and has a sense of what she is signing, then her consent is valid enough for some purposes. The patient could not bring a battery claim, because she authorized the procedure. 

This is analogous to the consumer context where the consumer "bought" the good or service. But healthcare demands more. Clinicians must obtain not only the patient's bare consent but also the patient's informed consent.

Too often, consent forms suffer from two big problems. First, they do not capture all the material information. Second, they do not convey that information meaningfully to the patient. Now, with the expanded use of signature pads, the patient does not even see or get the consent form at all.