HB 182 -- Outside the Hospital Do-Not-Resuscitate Act

Sponsor:  Bruns

This bill establishes the Outside the Hospital Do-Not-Resuscitate
Act which requires that a copy of this order must be included as
the first page of a patient's medical record.  A patient or
patient's representative and the patient's attending physician
may execute an outside the hospital do-not-resuscitate order.
The Department of Health and Senior Services must develop and
approve uniform forms and personal identifiers.  The identifiers
must alert any emergency medical technician, paramedic, first
responder, or other health care provider of the existence of this
order for the patient.

The bill specifies that the outside the hospital
do-not-resuscitate order will only be effective when the patient
has not been admitted to or is not being treated within a
hospital.  These orders and protocols will not authorize the
withholding or withdrawal of other medical interventions such as
intravenous fluids, oxygen, or therapies other than
cardiopulmonary resuscitation.  An outside the hospital
do-not-resuscitate order will not be effective when a patient is
pregnant or when believing in good faith that a patient is
pregnant.

Emergency medical technicians, paramedics, first responders, and
other health care providers are required to comply with an
outside the hospital do-not-resuscitate order or identifier
unless the patient or patient's representative expresses to the
personnel in any manner, before or after the onset of a cardiac
or respiratory arrest, the desire to be resuscitated.  A
physician or a health care facility other than a hospital that is
unwilling or unable to comply with this order must take all
reasonable steps to transfer the patient to another physician or
facility where the order will be followed.

The bill specifies individuals and entities that are exempt from
civil or criminal liability for withholding or withdrawing
resuscitation pursuant to an order or identifier as long as the
actions were performed in good faith and without gross
negligence.  Anyone who knowingly conceals, cancels, defaces, or
obliterates an order or identifier without the individual's
consent or knowingly falsifies or forges a revocation will be
guilty of a class A misdemeanor.  Anyone who knowingly executes,
falsifies, or forges an order without the individual's consent or
knowingly conceals or withholds the knowledge of a revocation of
an order will be guilty of a class D felony.

Missouri House of Representatives
94th General Assembly, 1st Regular Session
Last Updated July 25, 2007 at 11:18 am