Georgia Code
Article 9 - Hospice Care
§ 31-7-176.1. Determination or Pronouncement of Death

When a patient who is terminally ill or whose death is anticipated and who is receiving hospice care from a licensed hospice dies, a physician assistant, a nurse practitioner, or a registered professional nurse licensed in this state and employed by such hospice at the time of apparent death of such person, in the absence of an attending physician, may make the determination and pronouncement of the death of said patient. Such determination or pronouncement shall be made in writing on a form approved by the commissioner of community health.
History. Code 1981, § 31-7-176.1 , enacted by Ga. L. 1992, p. 1392, § 2; Ga. L. 2009, p. 453, § 1-6/HB 228; Ga. L. 2017, p. 625, § 2/SB 96.
The 2017 amendment, effective July 1, 2017, in the first sentence, inserted “a physician assistant, a nurse practitioner, or” near the beginning and deleted “; provided, however, that, when a hospice patient is a registered organ donor, only a physician may make the determination or pronouncement of death” following “said patient” at the end.
Law reviews.
For note on the 1992 enactment of this Code section, see 9 Ga. St. U. L. Rev. 265 (1992).

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