COMPETENCE TO CONSENT TO HOSPITALIZATION IN THE MEDICAL PATIENT

A slightly modified version (the CQ-Med) of a 15-item competency quest ionnaire (the CQ) was used to assess competency to consent to hospital ization in general hospital patients. The purpose of the study was to determine whether voluntary psychiatric inpatients would score compara bly with general hospital inpatients using a similar questionnaire. Th e patients studied performed better in nearly all areas of competency than the previously studied adult and adolescent psychiatric subjects using the same questionnaire (modified for the respective study popula tions). The CQ-Med questionnaire may be a useful instrument for prelim inary screening of general hospital patients, when indicated, for asse ssment of competency to consent to hospitalization.