NRS435.570. Rights concerning care, treatment and training.

  Each consumer admitted for evaluation, treatment or training to a facility has the following rights concerning care, treatment and training, a list of which must be prominently posted in all facilities providing those services and must be otherwise brought to the attention of the consumer by such additional means as prescribed by regulation:

      1.  To medical, psychosocial and rehabilitative care, treatment and training including prompt and appropriate medical treatment and care for physical and mental ailments and for the prevention of any illness or disability. All of that care, treatment and training must be consistent with standards of practice of the respective professions in the community and is subject to the following conditions:

      (a) Before instituting a plan of care, treatment or training or carrying out any necessary surgical procedure, express and informed consent must be obtained in writing from:

             (1) The consumer if he or she is 18 years of age or over or legally emancipated and competent to give that consent, and from the consumer’s legal guardian, if any;

             (2) The parent or guardian of a consumer under 18 years of age and not legally emancipated; or

             (3) The legal guardian of a consumer of any age who has been adjudicated mentally incompetent;

      (b) An informed consent requires that the person whose consent is sought be adequately informed as to:

             (1) The nature and consequences of the procedure;

             (2) The reasonable risks, benefits and purposes of the procedure; and

             (3) Alternative procedures available;

      (c) The consent of a consumer as provided in paragraph (b) may be withdrawn by the consumer in writing at any time with or without cause;

      (d) Even in the absence of express and informed consent, a licensed and qualified physician may render emergency medical care or treatment to any consumer who has been injured in an accident or who is suffering from an acute illness, disease or condition if, within a reasonable degree of medical certainty, delay in the initiation of emergency medical care or treatment would endanger the health of the consumer and if the treatment is immediately entered into the consumer’s record of treatment, subject to the provisions of paragraph (e); and

      (e) If the proposed emergency medical care or treatment is deemed by the chief medical officer of the facility to be unusual, experimental or generally occurring infrequently in routine medical practice, the chief medical officer shall request consultation from other physicians or practitioners of healing arts who have knowledge of the proposed care or treatment.

      2.  To be free from abuse, neglect and aversive intervention.

      3.  To consent to the consumer’s transfer from one facility to another, except that the Administrator of the Division or the Administrator’s designee, or the Administrator of the Division of Child and Family Services of the Department or the Administrator’s designee, may order a transfer to be made whenever conditions concerning care, treatment or training warrant it. If the consumer in any manner objects to the transfer, the person ordering it must enter the objection and a written justification of the transfer in the consumer’s record of treatment and immediately forward a notice of the objection to the Administrator who ordered the transfer, and the Commission on Behavioral Health shall review the transfer pursuant to subsection 3 of NRS 435.610.

      4.  Other rights concerning care, treatment and training as may be specified by regulation.

      (Added to NRS by 2013, 3022)