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CURVES Capacity Assessment Tool

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CURVES Capacity Assessment Tool, CURVES Mnemonic for Capacity Assessment

  • See Also
  1. Decision-Making Capacity
  • Indications
  1. Decision-Making Capacity Evaluation
  • Criteria
  1. Choose and communicate
    1. Can the patient make a choice and communicate that choice?
  2. Understand
    1. Can the patient understand benefits, risks and alternatives?
    2. What problem are you having right now that brought you to the hospital?
    3. What are the treatments for your problem?
    4. What are the risks of treatment and the odds you might have a side effect or bad outcome?
    5. What will happen if nothing is done?
  3. Reason
    1. Can the patient make a logical, rational choice?
    2. What factors are most important in your decision?
  4. Value
    1. Is the choice the patient makes consistent with their values?
  5. Emergency
    1. Is there an impending, emergent risk to the patient?
  6. Surrogate
    1. Is there a decision maker available?
    2. Does the patient have an Advanced Directive?
    3. Is there a designated medical power of attorney?
    4. Is there a close relative (spouse, adult child, parent, sibling)?
  • Interpretation
  1. First 4 letters (C-U-R-V)
    1. Assess the Decision-Making Capacity of the patient
  2. Last 2 letters (E-S)
    1. Assess whether emergency treatment can be delivered without Informed Consent
  • References
  1. Chow (2010) Chest 137(2): 421-7 [PubMed]