Opinion ID: 1346296
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Failure to Admit Evidence of Standards of the Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Hospitals Concerning Informed Consent.

Text: Plaintiff alleged throughout the proceedings that the surgery was not performed with her informed consent. At several points during the trial, she attempted to place in evidence the standards of the Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Hospitals concerning informed consent. The trial court excluded the proffered exhibit from being admitted for the jury's consideration. In the absence of a written consent signed by plaintiff (her mother signed for her), the issue was submitted to the jury on the basis of whether there had been an actual and knowing consent to the surgery based on discussions with the plaintiff by the doctors and hospital personnel. The written standards that plaintiff sought to place in evidence required adult patients to personally sign the written consent form. We have recognized that hospital accreditation standards are not necessarily evidence of the legal standard of care in medical malpractice cases. Van Iperen v. Van Bramer, 392 N.W.2d 480, 486 (Iowa 1986). In order to be admissible as some evidence of the standard of care, these accreditation standards must be authenticated and made relevant to the issue by appropriate expert testimony. Id. We find that the record made in the present case did not satisfy this requirement and that the trial court thus properly excluded the exhibit.