(a) The Hawaii medical board may establish standards for health care providers to follow in giving information to a patient, or to a patient’s guardian or legal surrogate if the patient lacks the capacity to give an informed consent, to ensure that the patient’s consent to treatment is an informed consent. The standards shall be consistent with subsection (b) and may include:
Terms Used In Hawaii Revised Statutes 671-3
Guardian: A person legally empowered and charged with the duty of taking care of and managing the property of another person who because of age, intellect, or health, is incapable of managing his (her) own affairs.
Health care provider: means a physician, osteopathic physician, surgeon, or physician assistant licensed under chapter 453, a podiatrist licensed under chapter 463E, a health care facility as defined in § 323D-2, and the employees of any of them. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 671-1
Power of attorney: A written instrument which authorizes one person to act as another's agent or attorney. The power of attorney may be for a definite, specific act, or it may be general in nature. The terms of the written power of attorney may specify when it will expire. If not, the power of attorney usually expires when the person granting it dies. Source: OCC
(1) The substantive content of the information to be given;(2) The manner in which the information is to be given by the health care provider; and(3) The manner in which consent is to be given by the patient or the patient’s guardian or legal surrogate.(b) The following information shall be supplied to the patient or the patient’s guardian or legal surrogate prior to obtaining consent to a proposed medical or surgical treatment or a diagnostic or therapeutic procedure:
(1) The condition to be treated;(2) A description of the proposed treatment or procedure;(3) The intended and anticipated results of the proposed treatment or procedure;(4) The recognized alternative treatments or procedures, including the option of not providing these treatments or procedures;(5) The recognized material risks of serious complications or mortality associated with:
(A) The proposed treatment or procedure;(B) The recognized alternative treatments or procedures; and(C) Not undergoing any treatment or procedure; and(6) The recognized benefits of the recognized alternative treatments or procedures.(c) On or before January 1, 1984, the Hawaii medical board shall establish standards for health care providers to follow in giving information to a patient or a patient’s guardian, to ensure that the patient’s consent to the performance of a mastectomy is an informed consent. The standards shall include the substantive content of the information to be given, the manner in which the information is to be given by the health care provider and the manner in which consent is to be given by the patient or the patient’s guardian. The substantive content of the information to be given shall include information on the recognized alternative forms of treatment.(d) Nothing in this section shall require informed consent from a patient or a patient’s guardian or legal surrogate when emergency treatment or an emergency procedure is rendered by a health care provider and the obtaining of consent is not reasonably feasible under the circumstances without adversely affecting the condition of the patient’s health.(e) For purposes of this section, “legal surrogate” means an agent designated in a power of attorney for health care or surrogate designated or selected in accordance with chapter 327E.
