Documented consent concordance varied across surgical services (Ophthalmology 94.5% vs Cardiothoracic 77.6%)

Description #

Under eConsent, documented language-concordant consent rates varied across the surgical services with the highest operative volume (Table 1). Ophthalmology (94.5%) and Gynecology/Gynecology Oncology (93.0%) had the highest concordance, whereas Transplant (77.8%) and Cardiothoracic Surgery (77.6%) had the lowest among the highest-volume services.

"Of the 11 surgical services with the highest operative volume, Ophthalmology and Gynecology/Gynecology Oncology had the highest rates of language-concordant consent. In contrast, Transplant Surgery and Cardiothoracic Surgery had the lowest rates of language-concordant consent." (Trang, 2024, p. 530)

"Ophthalmology 94.5 (137) 5.5 (8) ... Cardiothoracic Surgery 77.6 (52) 22.4 (15)" (Trang, 2024, p. 530, Table 1)

Methods Context #

What? #ⓘ

The observable: the proportion of eConsent encounters with documented language-concordant interpreter-mediated consent, stratified by surgical case service.

"Case Service, % (n)" (Trang, 2024, p. 530, Table 1)

How? #ⓘ

Cross-sectional tabulation of the study-period eConsent encounters by case service, with each service's concordant/discordant counts and percentages reported (Table 1) for the A-0007ArtifactA-0007Initial AI draftEpic eConsent with auto-translated consent templates and mandatory interpreter documentationTo improve language-concordant surgical informed consent for patients with limited English proficiency (LEP) by replacing paper consent forms with an EHR-integrated electronic consent (eConsent) that both delivers the wr….

"Chi-square tests were used to compare categorical variables, and all analysis was performed using R statistical software (version 4.3.0, R Core Team, 2023)." (Trang, 2024, p. 529)

Who? #ⓘ

The 1,016 LEP eConsent encounters distributed across surgical services at an urban academic medical center; the 11 highest-volume services were highlighted.

"During the study period, patients with a preferred language other than English signed 1,016 eConsents." (Trang, 2024, p. 529)

Other Notes #

The authors attribute the service-level variation to niche practice circumstances — Ophthalmology and Gynecology perform more elective cases completed in the office beforehand, whereas Transplant and Cardiothoracic operate on more acute patients with complex, high-turnover teams (Trang, 2024, p. 530–531).

Caveats #

• Single-institution retrospective interim analysis with a short study period and few supported languages The findings come from a single urban academic medical center, are retrospective, cover only a short study period (an interim analysis, Feb 8 – Jun 14 2023), and involve a limited number of languages with translated written consent templates (five). These features limit generalizability of the post-implementation concordance rates and the language/service/urgency subgroup patterns to other settings, later time points, and other language groups.