ASSEMBLY, No. 434

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

Introduced Pending Technical Review by Legislative Counsel

PRE-FILED FOR INTRODUCTION IN THE 1996 SESSION

By Assemblyman KELLY

An Act concerning do not resuscitate orders and supplementing Title 26 of the Revised Statutes.

    Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:

    1. a. If a resident of a long-term care facility who was transferred to that facility from a hospital has not executed an advance directive for health care, a do not resuscitate order issued by the resident's attending physician in the hospital shall be operative in the long-term care facility to which the resident has been transferred, until the long-term care facility conducts a comprehensive assessment of the resident and establishes and implements a care plan, pursuant to the provisions of N.J.A.C.8:39-11.2. If the resident is discharged to a hospital and returns to the facility within 30 days of discharge, a do not resuscitate order issued by the resident's attending physician in the hospital shall be operative until the long-term care facility conducts a reassessment in those areas in which the resident's needs have changed.

    b. A private, religiously-affiliated, long-term care facility may develop institutional policies and practices defining circumstances in which it will decline to participate in a do not resuscitate order issued by an attending physician in a hospital pursuant to subsection a. of this section. Such policies and practices shall be written, and shall be properly communicated to the resident and his family and, if appropriate, to the health care representative as defined pursuant to section 3 of P.L.1991, c.201 (C.26:2H-55), prior to or upon the resident's admission, or as soon after admission as is practicable.

    If the long-term care facility's policies and practices appear to conflict with the legal rights of a resident, the long-term care facility shall attempt to resolve the conflict through regional or local ethics committees, and if a mutually satisfactory accommodation cannot be reached, shall take all reasonable steps to effect the appropriate, timely and respectful transfer of the resident to the care of another long-term care facility appropriate to the resident's needs, and shall assure that the resident is not abandoned or treated disrespectfully.

    2. This act shall take effect immediately.

STATEMENT

    This bill requires a long-term care facility to accept a do not resuscitate order from an attending physician when a resident is transferred from a hospital where the order was issued to the long-term care facility. The do not resuscitate order would be in effect until the facility conducted a comprehensive assessment of the resident and established and implemented a care plan, pursuant to the provisions of N.J.A.C.8:39-11.2.

    Private, religiously-affiliated long-term care facilities would be permitted to develop policies and practices defining circumstances in which they would decline to accept the do not resuscitate order from the transferring hospital. These facilities would be required to inform residents of their policies and practices in this area. If the policies and practices conflict with the legal rights of resident, the facility would attempt to resolve the conflict through regional or local ethics committees and, if an accommodation could not be made, the resident would be transferred to an appropriate facility.

Requires long-term care facilities to accept do not resuscitate orders from hospitals until independent assessment is completed.