CHAPTER 137-J WRITTEN DIRECTIVES FOR MEDICAL DECISION MAKING FOR ADULTS WITHOUT CAPACITY TO MAKE HEALTH CARE DECISIONS
Advance Directives
Section 137-J:7
137-J:7 Attending Practitioner and Health Care Provider's Responsibilities. –
I. A qualified patient's attending practitioner, or a qualified patient's health care provider or residential care provider, and employees thereof, shall follow, as applicable, the directives of a qualified patient's designated agent or surrogate to the extent they are consistent with this chapter and the advance directive, and to the extent they are within the bounds of responsible medical practice.
(a) An attending practitioner, or other health care provider or residential care provider, who is requested to do so by the principal shall make the principal's advance directive or a copy of such document a part of the principal's medical record.
(b) Any person who possesses a duly executed advance directive or a revocation thereof, if it becomes known to that person that the principal executing the same is in such circumstances that the terms of the advance directive might become applicable (such as when the principal becomes a "qualified patient"), shall forthwith deliver an original or copy of the same to the health care provider or residential care provider with which the principal is a patient.
(c) The principal's attending practitioner, or any other physician, PA, or APRN, shall, without delay, take the necessary steps to provide for written verification of the principal's lack of capacity to make health care decisions (in other words, to certify in the principal's medical record that the principal is a "qualified patient"), so that the attending practitioner and the principal's agent or surrogate may be authorized to act pursuant to this chapter.
II. An attending practitioner who, because of personal beliefs or conscience, is unable to comply with a POLST, the principal's living will and/or the agent's or the surrogate's decision pursuant to this chapter shall, without delay, make the necessary arrangements to effect the transfer of a qualified patient and the appropriate medical records that document the qualified patient's lack of capacity to make health care decisions to another practitioner who has been chosen by the qualified patient's agent or surrogate provided, that pending the completion of the transfer, the attending practitioner shall not deny health care treatment which denial would, within a reasonable degree of medical certainty, result in or hasten the qualified patient's death against the express will of the qualified patient, the qualified patient's advance directive, or the agent or surrogate.
III. When an agent's or a surrogate's decision pursuant to this chapter, or the principal's living will or POLST requires an act or omission contrary to the moral or ethical principles or other standards of a health care provider or residential care provider of which the principal is a patient or resident, the health care provider shall allow for the transfer of the principal and the appropriate medical records to another health care provider chosen by the agent or surrogate and shall incur no liability for its refusal to carry out the terms of the direction by the agent or surrogate; provided, that, pending the completion of the transfer, the health care provider or residential care provider shall not deny health care treatment, which denial would within a reasonable degree of medical certainty result in or hasten the principal's death against the expressed will of the principal, the principal's advance directive, or the agent or surrogate; and further provided, that, the health care provider or residential care provider shall inform the agent or surrogate of its decision not to participate in such an act or omission.