Solutions to Improve Shared Decision-Making and Informed Consent

AHA Leadership Scan: A Series of Virtual Panel Discussions

Solutions to Improve Shared Decision-Making and Informed Consent  
How to engage patients with evidence-based information and insights  

Tuesday, December 12, 2023 
1 - 2 p.m. Eastern; noon - 1 p.m. Central; 10 - 11 a.m. Pacific   

Individual surgical and preprocedural risk assessment enhances the patient care experience and outcomes by informing shared decision-making, strengthening the consent process and supporting clinical management. Additionally, shared decision-making is known to reduce the cost of care. These discussions among physicians and patients (including their family members or caregivers) form the bedrock of perioperative informed consent. 

Instituting shared decision-making requires leadership involvement. Staff may need to be trained in what shared decision-making is and how to implement it. There also may be changes in staff assignments, workflow and resources that will need your guidance and approval. 

The optimal decision considers evidence-based information about available options, the provider’s knowledge and experience and the patient’s values and preferences. 

Nevertheless, the rate and quality of risk documentation needs to be improved, notes a study published in 2020 in Perioperative Medicine¹ . 

To truly engage patients in shared decision-making and provide proper informed consent, clinicians not only need the appropriate risk data, but they need to share it with patients and document these conversations. Implementing tools that can deliver insights into perioperative risk can enhance patient safety and the delivery of care. Lastly, where preference sensitive conditions exist, the use of validated decision aids should be part of the shared decision-making. 

Join us as our panel explores ways to improve shared decision-making, how to implement it and what data and tools can deliver insights to assist in this process. 

Attendees Will Learn: 

• To share best practices on shared decision-making’s essential role in informed consent and pragmatic care. 
• To assess the impact of shared decision-making on the patient experience, clinical outcomes and cost of care. 
• To examine how social determinants of health impact informed consent and shared decision-making. 
• To understand considerations when implementing shared decision-making processes and tools, including the use of decision aids where preference-sensitive conditions exist. 

¹ https://perioperativemedicinejournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13741-020-00156-2 

Session Panelists: 

Dan Handel, MD, MBA, MPH 
Vice President / Chief Medical Officer, Central Area 
Atrium Health 

Steven Diaz, MD 
Chief Medical Officer 
MaineGeneral Health 
 
Mary Dale Peterson, MD, MSHCA, FACHE, FASA 
Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer 
Driscoll Health System 
Past President at the American Society of Anesthesiologists 

Joshua A Bloomstone, MD, MSc, FASA 
Chief Medical Officer 
Envision Healthcare 
 
AHA Moderator: 

Rhonda Fischer, RN  
Team Training Clinical Program Lead 
The American Hospital Association 

By attending the AHA Leadership virtual panel discussion "Solutions to Improve Shared Decision-Making and Informed Consent" offered by the AHA, participants may earn up to 1 ACHE Qualified Education Hour toward initial certification or recertification of the Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives (FACHE) designation.