No. SB 312
Filed under Healthcare.
Patient-directed Medical Orders; Revising definitions and defining the term “patient-directed medical order”; authorizing the execution of a patient-directed medical order for a specified purpose; requiring that certain health care services be provided to the principal regardless of the decision to withhold or withdraw life-prolonging procedures; authorizing physicians, physician assistants, and advanced practice registered nurses to withhold or withdraw life-prolonging procedures under certain circumstances without penalty; requiring the Agency for Health Care Administration to create and update a database for the storage of patient-directed medical orders, etc.
Plain English Summary
AI-GENERATEDCreates a patient-directed medical order, a new advance directive letting a patient and a physician, physician assistant, or nurse practitioner jointly decide in advance to withhold or withdraw life-prolonging treatment.
Extends this new order, alongside existing do-not-resuscitate orders, across hospitals, nursing homes, hospice, home health agencies, assisted living facilities, adult family-care homes, and EMTs, with immunity for following it.
Adds advanced practice registered nurses -- not just physicians and physician assistants -- to the list of providers who can sign a do-not-resuscitate order or a patient-directed medical order.
Requires the state to build a database where patients can optionally store their orders online, and requires comfort care and pain relief regardless of any decision to withhold treatment.
AIA patient working with a physician, physician assistant, or nurse practitioner can execute a portable order directing whether life-prolonging treatment is withheld or withdrawn, usable across care settings statewide.
AIRegardless of any decision to withhold or withdraw life-prolonging procedures, the new law requires that care for comfort and pain relief continue to be provided to the patient.
AIAdvanced practice registered nurses join physicians and physician assistants as providers who may execute and honor an order to withhold or withdraw life-prolonging procedures, immune from discipline, prosecution, or civil liability for doing so.
AIThe legal definition of palliative care no longer requires the listed patient assurances -- including honoring advance directives, patient dignity, and non-abandonment regardless of location of care -- it now only permits them.
AIAssisted living facilities and adult family-care homes now count as health care facilities for purposes of advance directives, giving their residents the same rights and the facilities the same duties as hospitals and nursing homes.
AIThe Agency for Health Care Administration must build and maintain an electronic database where a patient can choose to store a patient-directed medical order so it is accessible wherever the patient receives care.