Parental Consent via Telephone in California

[Alicia Claire]

In my experience any informed consent obtained over the telephone requires 2 medical professionals witnessing.

I am in California at an appointment only clinic doing vaccinations 

For 16 and 17 year old patients , what is the law for obtaining parental consent via telephone for a vaccination? Any information and links would be greatly appreciated!!

[CABGpatch_RN, BSN]

This may be easier to access the Consent and Confidentially Laws for minors in the State of CA than the pdf in my last post.

http://teenhealthlaw.org/consent/

[Surfin USA]

On 4/20/2021 at 9:38 PM, Alicia Claire said:

In my experience any informed consent obtained over the telephone requires 2 medical professionals witnessing.

I am in California at an appointment only clinic doing vaccinations 

For 16 and 17 year old patients , what is the law for obtaining parental consent via telephone for a vaccination? Any information and links would be greatly appreciated!!

If its a Title X clinic, they can sometimes get vaccines without parental consent, depending on the clinic.

 Otherwise, children 12 and older can only get hep b and HPV vaccines, without parental consent. 

Also, children 12 and older can consent to medical treatment for any communicable disease if they have come in contact with someone who had it. 

California Family Code 

§6926

 

[Surfin USA]

In fact, since Sars-Cov-2 can be spread by sex, it could even be argued that it is an STD that the minor child is trying to avoid. 

Its a sound argument. Hep B is also easy to transmit via blood, its not solely sexually transmitted. 

IDK if this argument would fly, really, but its worth a shot if you get stuck with a minor with no parents available. 

Also I don't see anywhere that it says two parents are required for consent. Many people don't have two living parents, so this seems a bit much. 

 

[Surfin USA]

Yaay I found the answer. It's in the California Covid vaccine dashboard Q and A.

So yes only one parent is required to consent. 

The Q and A only specifies one parent, and asks for written consent. 

Also, if its a doctor that has a written general care consent signed, they don't need to get parental consent. 

And of course, emancipated teens are treated like adults so they don't need consent. 

https://covid19.ca.gov/vaccines/#Questions-and-answers