Only 5.1% of LEP patients signed their eConsent via the patient portal (73.2% signed on in-unit iPads)
Source
Karen Trang (2024). The Impact of Using Electronic Consents on Documentation of Language-Concordant Surgical Consent for Patients with Limited English Proficiency. The Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety.
Description #
Although the eConsent could be delivered and signed remotely through the patient portal, uptake among LEP patients was low: only 39.2% had their eConsent delivered via the patient portal, and just 5.1% actually used the portal to sign; the majority (73.2%) signed in person on iPad workstations in the preoperative unit.
"Only 39.2% of patients with LEP had their eConsent delivered via the patient portal, and just 5.1% of patients with LEP used the patient portal to sign their eConsent; the majority (73.2%) signed on iPad workstations in the preoperative unit." (Trang, 2024, p. 530)
Methods Context #
What? #ⓘ
The observable: the mode of eConsent delivery and signature (patient portal, remotely, versus in-person on a hospital iPad) among LEP patients.
"Patient signature collection options were in-person (synchronous) signing via a hospital device, or remote (synchronous or asynchronous) signing via the patient portal." (Trang, 2024, p. 529)
How? #ⓘ
Deployment of 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… allowed the consent to be delivered and signed electronically via the patient portal for enrolled adults; the proportions using each mode were tabulated from the study-period eConsents.
"Deployment of eConsent also allowed the consent to be delivered and signed electronically via the patient portal for adult patients who were enrolled." (Trang, 2024, p. 529)
Who? #ⓘ
The LEP patients among the 1,016 study-period eConsent encounters at an urban academic medical center.
"During the study period, patients with a preferred language other than English signed 1,016 eConsents." (Trang, 2024, p. 529)
Other Notes #
The authors note this is consistent with known disparities in patient-portal use among LEP patients versus English-proficient patients, and that much more work is needed before LEP patients can effectively benefit from portal-based eConsent (Trang, 2024, p. 531).