Hospitals must obtain written patient consent for pelvic exams, HHS says
The Department of Health and Human Services said Monday that hospitals must obtain written informed consent from patients before undergoing sensitive tests — such as pelvic and prostate exams — especially if the patients will be under anesthesia.A New York Times investigation in 2020 found that hospitals, doctors and doctors-in-training sometimes conducted pelvic exams on women under anesthesia, even when such exams were not medically necessary and when the patient had not authorized them. Sometimes these exams were performed only for the educational benefit of medical trainees.On Monday, the secretary of Health and Human Services, along with senior officials from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the department's Office for Civil Rights, sent a letter to teaching hos...