Fertility clinics work within a highly sensitive sector which requires patient consent and comprehension. MD Consents is acutely familiar with these requirements, particularly when the company launched its fertilityconsent.com service.
MD Consents launched fertilityconsent.com in 2017. It has over 80 fertility clinics in the UK and Ireland. The company needed a robust e‑signature solution that could handle the sensitive nature of healthcare consents as part of its new service.
This case study delves into the business objectives that Ascertia’s SigningHub has helped MD Consents meet, including:
- Strengthening an already robust informed consent process
- Increasing transparency
- Improving patient education
- Communicating the legal implications of treatments
Read on to find out why MD Consents describes Ascertia and its SigningHub solution as “reliable, collaborative, professional.”
Selection process:
MD Consents needed a signing solution that was not only reliable and flexible, but that prioritised the security and confidentiality of all signing parties. The solution had to provide a comprehensive digital audit trail, as well as legal evidence of each signer’s identity and long-term signature validation (LTV). The company searched for a solution that ticked those boxes, and the rest is history.
Solution:
SigningHub's 'per-signature' pricing model was highly cost-effective. Its flexibility and support offered MD Consents the ability to provide a comprehensive solution, offering clinics an LTV consent signing service that is effective for them and their patients.
Privacy and anonymity are compulsory to comply with the Human Fertility and Embryology Association (HFEA) regulations. All patients must sign through a secure clinic portal, avoiding the need to send forms via unsecured email.
Portals are unique to individual clinics, and this process ensures the system never stores names or email addresses. Patients sign digitally at home or on a tablet in the presence of healthcare professionals, with documents being timestamped and verified in real time.
Fertility treatments involve many forms and require patients to read and understand a significant amount of information, ensuring they make informed decisions. The cloud-based solution enables patients to access information through simple videos at their convenience from the comfort of their own homes.
SigningHub provides 'page declarations'. These are points throughout a form where signers must mark to declare they have read and understood specific sections. This feature offers long-term evidence of understanding to the clinic in case a patient disputes a form.
SigningHub also provides LTV through PDF/A documents, embedded timestamps and Online Certificate Status Protocol (OCSP) technology to ensure proof of signing. This process provides patients and clinics with a minimum of up to 50 years of signature validation (with the ability to extend beyond this timeframe).
Results:
Clinics used to be drowning in paperwork, between printing, posting, filing and chasing signatures. That workflow was almost eliminated with the introduction of SigningHub.
As per MD Consents’ CTO Tony Marven: “This scale and efficiency simply couldn’t exist without the rock‑solid e‑signature foundation that Ascertia provides.”
From the clinic's perspective, Fertility Consent powered by SigningHub improves efficiency by reducing the consenting process from up to two hours to just 20 minutes. The time saved frees up nurses' time, allowing them to spend more time with patients.
An incorrect form can cost clinics hundreds or even thousands of pounds to correct. SigningHub ensures forms are completed correctly and provides long-term evidence and an audit trail, significantly reducing risks.
With significant time savings, cost benefits, and improved risk management all delivered, MD Consents now has, as its CTO Tony said, “a solution that clinics and patients can depend on. Signatures that provide non‑repudiation and long-term validation are critical for us, and SigningHub delivers these.”
Today, MD Consents processes over 1.5 million signatures annually through SigningHub.
Years on from the partnership starting, CTO Tony said it’s Ascertia and SigningHub’s “consistency and thorough approach to planning upgrades and updates” that have kept MD Consents engaged beyond the aforementioned efficiency benefits.
