Advance health care directive of a skilled nursing facility patient.

Plain English Breakdown

The official source material does not provide details on how an ombudsperson will verify a patient's identity without relying on other sources.

Advance Health Care Directive for Skilled Nursing Facility Patients

This law changes how an advance health care directive is witnessed for patients in skilled nursing facilities by requiring only an ombudsperson to witness the directive.

What This Bill Does

• Removes the requirement that a patient advocate must witness an advance health care directive for a patient in a skilled nursing facility.
• Requires only an ombudsperson to sign and witness the advance health care directive of a patient in a skilled nursing facility.

Who It Names or Affects

• Patients in skilled nursing facilities who need to create an advance health care directive.
• Ombudspersons working with patients in skilled nursing facilities.

Terms To Know

Advance Health Care Directive

A legal document where a person states their wishes for medical treatment if they become unable to make decisions later on.

Ombudsperson

An official who investigates complaints and helps resolve problems, often in nursing homes or other care facilities.

Limits and Unknowns

• The bill does not specify what happens if an ombudsperson is unavailable to witness the directive.
• It's unclear how this change will affect patient advocates' roles in these situations.

Official Summary Text

SB 1189, as introduced, Valladares.
Advance health care directive of a skilled nursing facility patient.
Existing law, the Health Care Decisions Law, provides for the creation, form, and revocation of advance health care directives, and authorizes an adult having capacity to give an individual health care instruction. Under existing law, the advance health care directive of a patient in a skilled nursing facility is not effective unless a patient advocate or ombudsperson signs the advance directive as a witness and declares that they are serving as a witness pursuant to this requirement. Existing law authorizes a witness who is a patient advocate or ombudsperson to rely on the representations of the administrators or staff of the skilled nursing facility, or of family members, as convincing evidence of the identity of the patient, as specified.
This bill would delete a patient advocate from the above-described witness duties, thus requiring that an ombudsperson witness the advance health care directive of a patient in a
skilled nursing facility.

Current Bill Text

Download Bill PDF