Abstract
The Hopkins Competency Assessment Test (HCAT), a brief instrument for evaluating the competency of patients to give informed consent or write advance directives, consists of a short essay and a questionnaire for determining patients' understanding of the essay. In a study to validate the instrument, 41 medical and psychiatric inpatients answered the questionnaire after reading the essay while hearing it read aloud. A forensic psychiatrist who was blind to the HCAT scores later examined the patients for competency. A subject's number of correct answers to the HCAT questionnaire was an accurate indicator of clinical competency as assessed by the psychiatrist. The results suggest that the HCAT is a useful tool for rapidly screening patients for competency to make treatment decisions.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 132-136 |
| Number of pages | 5 |
| Journal | Hospital and Community Psychiatry |
| Volume | 43 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 1992 |
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Psychiatry and Mental health