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Emergency Law Inventory | Full Law Text

Law Number

Tex. Health & Safety Code 166.045

Summary Title

Liability: Complying with Advance Directive

Summary

A health care professional who does not know about a patient’s advance directive will not be held legally responsible for not complying with the advance directive when providing treatment. A health care professional who refuses to comply with an advance directive will not be held legally responsible or professionally disciplined if they submit that decision to an ethics committee and they arrange for a transfer of the patient to another provider or facility upon request.

Full Title

Liability for Failure to Effectuate Directive

Full Text

(a) A physician, health care facility, or health care professional who has no knowledge of a directive is not civilly or criminally liable for failing to act in accordance with the directive. (b) A physician, or a health professional acting under the direction of a physician, is subject to review and disciplinary action by the appropriate licensing board for failing to effectuate a qualified patient’s directive in violation of this subchapter or other laws of this state. This subsection does not limit remedies available under other laws of this state. (c) If an attending physician refuses to comply with a directive or treatment decision and does not wish to follow the procedure established under Section 166.046, life-sustaining treatment shall be provided to the patient, but only until a reasonable opportunity has been afforded for the transfer of the patient to another physician or health care facility willing to comply with the directive or treatment decision. (d) A physician, health professional acting under the direction of a physician, or health care facility is not civilly or criminally liable or subject to review or disciplinary action by the person’s appropriate licensing board if the person has complied with the procedures outlined in Section 166.046.

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