Effective: March 21, 2017
Latest Legislation: House Bill 470 - 131st General Assembly
Nothing in section 3795.01, 3795.02, or 3795.04 of the Revised Code shall do any of the following:
(A) Prohibit or preclude a physician, certified nurse practitioner, certified nurse-midwife, or clinical nurse specialist who carries out the responsibility to provide comfort care to a patient in good faith and while acting within the scope of the physician's or nurse's authority from prescribing, dispensing, administering, or causing to be administered any particular medical procedure, treatment, intervention, or other measure to the patient, including, but not limited to, prescribing, personally furnishing, administering, or causing to be administered by judicious titration or in another manner any form of medication, for the purpose of diminishing the patient's pain or discomfort and not for the purpose of postponing or causing the patient's death, even though the medical procedure, treatment, intervention, or other measure may appear to hasten or increase the risk of the patient's death;
(B) Prohibit or preclude health care personnel acting under the direction of a person authorized to prescribe a patient's treatment and who carry out the responsibility to provide comfort care to the patient in good faith and while acting within the scope of their authority from dispensing, administering, or causing to be administered any particular medical procedure, treatment, intervention, or other measure to the patient, including, but not limited to, personally furnishing, administering, or causing to be administered by judicious titration or in another manner any form of medication, for the purpose of diminishing the patient's pain or discomfort and not for the purpose of postponing or causing the patient's death, even though the medical procedure, treatment, intervention, or other measure may appear to hasten or increase the risk of the patient's death;
(C) Prohibit or affect the use or continuation, or the withholding or withdrawal, of life-sustaining treatment, CPR, or comfort care under Chapter 2133. of the Revised Code;
(D) Prohibit or affect the provision or withholding of health care, life-sustaining treatment, or comfort care to a principal under a durable power of attorney for health care or any other health care decision made by an attorney in fact under sections 1337.11 to 1337.17 of the Revised Code;
(E) Affect or limit the authority of a physician, a health care facility, a person employed by or under contract with a health care facility, or emergency service personnel to provide or withhold health care to a person in accordance with reasonable medical standards applicable in an emergency situation;
(F) Affect or limit the authority of a person to refuse to give informed consent to health care, including through the execution of a durable power of attorney for health care under sections 1337.11 to 1337.17 of the Revised Code, the execution of a declaration under sections 2133.01 to 2133.15 of the Revised Code, or authorizing the withholding or withdrawal of CPR under sections 2133.21 to 2133.26 of the Revised Code.