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Decision-Making Capacity

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Abstract

Surgeons obtain informed consent from patients for the procedures they perform. Occasionally, however, the medical consultant will be asked to assist with assessment of a particular patient’s capacity (or lack thereof) to consent to evaluation and/or treatment. Patients are presumed to possess decision-making capacity, unless a clinical evaluation suggests that it is lacking. Studies suggest, however, that clinicians frequently fail to recognize when patients lack decision-making capacity.

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Correspondence to Kara J. Mitchell M.D. .

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© 2015 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

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Mitchell, K.J. (2015). Decision-Making Capacity. In: Jackson, M.B., Mookherjee, S., Hamlin, N.P. (eds) The Perioperative Medicine Consult Handbook. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-09366-6_39

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-09366-6_39

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-09365-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-09366-6

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