Consent and care access

Consent belongs to a patient and identifies a purpose and version. Its signature date, expiry, document and state help staff distinguish signed, pending, withdrawn and expired consent. Care-team assignment is a separate record naming a clinician, purpose and effective dates.

• Consent purpose. The Clinical Coordinator checks the patient’s purpose, version, signed date, document and expiry.
• Care assignment. The Clinical Governance Administrator maintains the patient, clinician, access purpose and effective period.
• Separate states. A signed consent does not turn an ended care assignment active, or the reverse.

At a specimen collection visit, the coordinator checks consent for the relevant purpose. The governance administrator checks whether the clinician has an active assignment during the visit. A later withdrawal changes the consent state; the encounter and specimen retain their own history.

Agree the purpose and version staff need for specimen collection before scheduling the pilot. The coordinator can manage consent records; the Licensed Clinician can also manage them under the published permissions. Decide who records a signature and who checks expiry before collection. Keep the attached document with the consent whose status is Signed.

The governance administrator owns care-team assignments. Set effective dates and access purpose for the named clinician and patient. Rehearse a later Ended state without altering the patient’s consent. A patient-level consent status is separate from the purpose-specific consent record, so staff should inspect the relevant consent rather than relying only on the patient’s summary state.

Choose a patient with a signed collection consent and an active care-team assignment. Ask the coordinator to check purpose, version, document and expiry against the planned visit. Ask the governance administrator to open the assignment and check the clinician, access purpose and dates. Then ask the clinician to find the correct encounter before collection.

Repeat after withdrawing that consent while leaving the assignment active. The staff member should notice the consent’s Withdrawn state and stop treating the earlier signature as current. Rehearse an ended assignment with a still-signed consent as a separate case. Have the reviewer inspect both records and explain which owner must correct each one.

• Consent Queue — Consent waiting for signature or already signed.
• Encounter Intake — Visits whose patient and clinician need an access check.

Read encounter and specimen handling for the intake handoff and review and closeout for the final visit decision.