Hospital Pharmacist
Vol 12 No 4 p126
April 2005

News summary

Obtaining consent could compromise paediatric database

Having a requirement to obtain signed consent for the collection of patient-identifiable information to be entered onto the national paediatric intensive care audit network database would significantly reduce the amount of information stored on the database, and could therefore compromise it.

This is the view set out in a study published on BMJ online. Researchers from the University of Leeds (McKinney PA, et al) set about obtaining consent by giving the parents or guardians of children admitted to five intensive care units a short explanation of the database, together with an information sheet. They then asked parents or guardians to fill in a signed consent form 24 hours later. Although there was only one active refusal (ie, the parent or guardian indicated on the form that they did not want information about their child being included on the database), only 182 out of 422 signed forms giving consent were returned. Signed forms were more likely to be returned for younger children and for those who had longer hospital stays. If obtaining consent to add information to audit databases becomes necessary, then resources will need to be dedicated to finding new ways of doing so, the researchers conclude.