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Informed Consent: It Is The Physician's Legal Duty, Not Nurse's Or Hospital's

  The physician who is to perform a contemplated medical or surgical procedure has the legal responsibility to provide the patient with necessary information concerning the risks and benefits, and obtain the patient’s informed consent prior to the procedure, according to the Court of Appeal of Louisiana.

  A hospital’s nursing staff has the legal responsibility to check the patient’s chart prior to a medical or surgical procedure to make sure that an informed consent form has been signed by the patient or the patient’s parent or guardian for any procedure which has been scheduled by the physician.

  However, it is not the legal responsibility of the hospital’s nursing staff to establish that the patient has in fact been fully informed of the risks and benefits, and has given truly informed consent to the procedure, as opposed to just signing off unwittingly on the consent form.

  Nor will the hospital’s nursing staff be held responsible if the physician goes ahead with a different medical or surgical procedure than the one for which the patient has signed a consent form. Kelley vs. Kitahama, 675 So. 2d 1181 (La. App., 1996).