NRS449.695. Provider of health care required to comply with valid POLST form; modification by physician; transfer of care of patient; exceptions.

      1.  Except as otherwise provided in this section and NRS 449.6946, a provider of health care shall comply with a valid Physician Order for Life-Sustaining Treatment form, regardless of whether the provider of health care is employed by a health care facility or other entity affiliated with the physician who executed the POLST form.

      2.  A physician may medically evaluate the patient and, based upon the evaluation, may recommend new orders consistent with the most current information available about the patient’s health status and goals of care. Before making a modification to a valid POLST form, the physician shall consult the patient or, if the patient is incompetent, shall make a reasonable attempt to consult the representative of the patient and the patient’s attending physician.

      3.  Except as otherwise provided in subsection 4, a provider of health care who is unwilling or unable to comply with a valid POLST form shall take all reasonable measures to transfer the patient to a physician or health care facility so that the POLST form will be followed.

      4.  Life-sustaining treatment must not be withheld or withdrawn pursuant to a POLST form of a patient known to the attending physician to be pregnant, so long as it is probable that the fetus will develop to the point of live birth with the continued application of life-sustaining treatment.

      5.  Nothing in this section requires a provider of health care to comply with a valid POLST form if the provider of health care does not have actual knowledge of the existence of the form.

      (Added to NRS by 2013, 2287)