Virginia Board of Health Promulgates Medical Futility Regulations

Last week, the Virginia Board of Health promulgated regulations that update the rules for the licensure of hospitals. The regulations were required to conform to last year's amendments to the Virginia medical futility statute. Here is the relevant text: Each hospital that is equipped to provide life-sustaining treatment shall develop a policy to determine the medical or ethical appropriateness of proposed medical care, which shall include: 1. A process for obtaining a second opinion regarding the medical and ethical appropriateness of proposed medical care in cases in which a physician has determined proposed care to be medically or ethically inappropriate; 2. Provisions for review of the determination that proposed medical care is medically or ethically inappropriate by an interdisciplinary medical review committee and a determination by the interdisciplinary medical review committee regarding the medical and ethical appropriateness of the proposed health care of the patient; 3. Requirements for a written explanation of the decision of the interdisciplinary medical review committee, which shall be included in the patient's medical record; and 4. Provisions to ensure the patient, the patient's agent, or the person authorized to make the patient's medical decisions in accordance with § 54.1-2986 of the Code of Virginia is informed of the patient's right to obtain the patient's medical record and the right to obtain an independent medical opinion and afforded reasonable op...
Source: blog.bioethics.net - Category: Medical Ethics Authors: Tags: Health Care syndicated Source Type: blogs