Case Study: Do Not Resuscitate

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Do Not Resuscitate
In this report I will explain what the DNR means for us as patients and Health Care Providers. I will analyze the “varying approaches to identification devices, medical prerequisites, surrogate authority, revocation, reciprocity, and the interrelationship of DNR orders with other types of advance directives” (Ladwig, n.d. pg 34 para 8) between states and hospitals in order to identify the areas of law that seems to create confusion due to their differences in advance directives. Last but not least, I will examine ways in which to improve the confusion/differences nationwide.
The do not resuscitate aka DNR is a legal order provided by a patient stating that they are not to be resuscitated via CPR or with advanced cardiac life support. If they stop breathing or their heart stops beating they have the legal right to say no to life saving measures. The patient may have this legal form in advance or they can receive one from the hospital (U.S. National Library of Medicine, 2014).
Health care facilities will honor the patient’s wish as long as the paper work is legit with signatures and witnesses or whatever is required by their state. The DNR is most often requested by the patient themselves although; in some cases they may be requested by the health care provider who has the power of attorney (U.S. National Library of Medicine, 2014).
Hospitals have been mandated to honor their patient’s decision ever since 1991, when Congress passed the Patient Self- Determination Act Law. Forty-nine states with the exception of my home state of Missouri gave permission for the next of kin to make decisions for incoherent relatives. Missouri also has an extra requirement for their Living Will Statute and that is any form...

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... family calls 911 EMS will still follow Advanced Life Support protocol even though the patient is terminally ill and hospice unless the proper DNA form is presented by the patient or the one that has power of attorney (Hospice Patients Alliance, 2014).
Anesthesiologists are those that patients who have active DNR orders encounter quite often. 15 percent of their patients with do not resuscitate orders go to the operating room for procedures that are most of the time geared toward improving the quality of life (Kelley , 2014).
A do not resuscitate order for patients who have emergency surgery is an “independent risk factor for poor surgical outcome and postoperative mortality” (Kelley , 2014 pg 1 para 3) and the probability of returning patients to their previous level of functioning is higher for CPR performed during the peri-operative period (Kelley , 2014).

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