Government issues new guidelines for pelvic exam patient consent

The Department of Health and Human Services credits reporting like that of Scripps News Kansas City for the new recommendations.

On Monday, the federal government issued new recommendations that require hospitals to get consent before conducting intimate exams on patients, especially those under anesthesia.

The Scripps News Kansas City investigative team has extensively reported on this practice for a year and a half, and our coverage led to Missouri passing a law banning pelvic exams without consent.

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), through the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), said if hospitals want medical students to practice a pelvic exam on someone, they must have processes in place to get informed consent from the patient first.

Advocates say this should have been in place all along, but are nonetheless calling this move a victory.

In our previous reporting, we learned that doctors-in-training have practiced these exams, most often pelvic, on anesthetized patients as a teaching tool.