Surgical consent form

What a surgical consent form includes

Hospitals and health services set their own requirements. A typical surgical consent form, like the ones made here, includes:

• The patient's details: name, date of birth and hospital number, in a box the size of a patient label.
• The procedure, with the side and site, and any additional (+) or possible (+/−) procedures.
• The benefits and the risks of each procedure, each with a plain-language explanation.
• The patient's declaration and signature, or those of an authorised person, with the date.
• The doctor's declaration and signature: that the procedure, its benefits and risks and the treatment choices were discussed and questions answered.
• Any additional consents, such as blood products and transfusion or clinical photography, which the patient can accept or decline.
• Your letterhead, so the form carries your practice's name.

Why procedure-specific

A blank surgical consent form template leaves you to write out every risk by hand. Here you pick the procedure and its benefits and risks are already listed, each with a plain-language explanation. You can edit them, add your own and keep your wording for next time. Stack several procedures on one consent, and the benefits and risks are combined without repeats.

What to discuss with the patient and what to record is in the guide to informed consent for surgery.

Signed the way that suits you

• On paper: print the consent for signing by hand.
• On screen: you and the patient sign on a phone, tablet or computer.
• By email: the patient opens a secure link with their date of birth and signs on their own device.

Patient details are used to make the consent, then discarded. PDFs sent by email are protected with AES-256 encryption.

For registered medical practitioners

Registering is free, and the free plan covers every core feature. Surgery Consent Companion was built in Australia; practitioners elsewhere, including the United States, can use it and adjust the wording to the rules that apply to them.