The radiology group at my facility has recently demanded that when we get consents signed for procedures that we leave the doctor's name space blank so that they can fill in the specific doctor when the patient comes down. I can understand wanting to have the specific doc's name in there, but on the other hand, the consent does specify that another doctor may perform the procedure as appropriate. We usually put in the ordering MD's name and explain to the patient that a specially trained interventional radiologist will do the actual procedure, but that we are not privy to who it is prior to the procedure being done. I am not comfortable putting my signature to a legal document, knowing that someone else will be filling in a blank on it at a later time. Heck, I even won't get anesthesia consents if the anesthesia group hasn't talked to the patient yet; I don't know enough about the anesthesia process to be in any way able to give informed consent on it.
Management's opinion seems to be that those nurses who are not comfortable with this new process are making a mountain out of a molehill...I say it's a legal document which should not be altered after I witness the patient's signature, unless there is a process put in place whereby those who do said altering take responsibility for their changes to it. It would simplify things if they would just call and let us know who was scheduled to do what, but apparently that's just asking the impossible.
What do you all think? Am I being too anal, or do you feel that this is a legit issue I'm having?
