A consent only counts if the client understands what they are signing. Give them the form in a language they read comfortably, and when you can't, explain it out loud before they sign. On a busy day with a full waiting room, this is easy to skip.
In short: Set the document language to the one most of your clients read well. For clients who don't, show them the blank form first and talk it through. If the standard wording doesn't fit your practice, write your own text and keep it plain.
Pick the language most of your clients read
Ask yourself which language most of your clients can read a page of small print in without effort. It may differ from the one you speak at the reception desk or the one the practice was registered in. In some cities the answer is obvious. In others, clients speak one language at home and another at work, and they won't always tell you which they prefer for documents.
Watch your clients for a week. Notice who asks you to repeat something, who spends a long time over the form and who signs without reading it at all. Pay most attention to the people who sign straight away. Some of them agree with everything, and some simply didn't understand and felt awkward saying so.
In PodoCard the language of the consent forms is set separately from the interface language, so you can work in the app in one language while the documents come out in another. There are eight to choose from: Ukrainian, English, Russian, Polish, German, Georgian, Kazakh and Spanish. In the web version the owner or the manager changes it in the "Documents" section; in the app the owner finds "Documents language" under "Settings" → "Change Language". It is one setting for the whole practice, so choose the language that covers most people, even if it isn't the one the last client needed.
When a client reads the form in their second language
Some clients will always get the form in a language that isn't their first. Don't leave them alone with it. Open the blank form before the visit and go through it together. Any staff member can open a blank form, so the administrator can do this at the desk while the podiatrist finishes with the previous client.
Explain in your own words instead of reading the text aloud. Say what you are going to do today, what the client may feel during and after the procedure, and what you will photograph and why. Then ask them to tell you in a sentence what they are agreeing to. If they can, the signature probably means something. If they hesitate, slow down and go back to the part that confused them.
Give people time. A client rushed into signing something they half understood may be unhappy later, even if the visit itself went well, so it's worth starting five minutes late. If they came with a relative or a friend who reads the language better, let that person read the form too, and make it clear that questions about a word or a phrase are welcome.
The photo consent needs its own moment. Clients are usually comfortable with the treatment they came for, but not everyone expects their feet to be photographed. Explain that the photos stay in their client card and help you follow progress between visits. Using a photo outside the practice is a separate conversation, and it's worth having it separately.
Once the client signs, the signature goes into the PDF and the document stays in their card with the signing date. If the client has an e-mail address in the card, a copy is sent to them automatically. For someone who read the form in their second language, that copy helps: they can look at it again at home, translate a line they weren't sure about and ask you at the next visit.
Writing your own consent text
The two standard forms, consent to services and consent to photo documentation, cover the usual situation and are filled in with the client's data automatically. Some practices want their own wording, for example a description of the procedures they actually do or just shorter sentences. In the web version the "Documents" section has "Custom consents" for this. When you turn them on, your text goes into the PDF instead of the standard one.
If you write your own text, write it for the person in the chair. Use short sentences with one idea each. Name the procedures the way you would name them when talking to the client. Where a plain word works, skip the long medical term, and where you do need the term, explain it in the same sentence. Then read the whole text aloud once and rewrite any sentence you stumble over.
What counts as a valid consent depends on the rules where you work. Use a custom text to make the form clearer, and keep everything the standard form covers unless you know it isn't needed. If you're not sure what must be in it, ask someone who knows the local requirements before you switch the standard form off.
Whatever language and wording you settle on, read the form again every few months. Over time you add procedures and your clients change, and a form that fitted well last year may no longer describe what you do.
