End-of-Life Care

As one attack on the state’s medical ethics committee review law ends, another is in progress. Once again, the Texas Medical Association is telling a court medicine backs the law.

When TMA urged members to ask their state senators to vote “no” on a key bill regarding treatment disputes at the end of life, they didn’t hold back. Hundreds of Texas physicians took up the call, using TMA’s Grassroots Action enter to share very personal and passionate messages with their senators.

This publication will help you become familiar with legal forms that relate to your patients’ medical issues, as well as offer you tools to help you broach the sensitive topic of the need for such planning. Advance care planning ensures a patient's living wishes are carried out. It protects them, as well as those who otherwise might be left with the emotional toll of making a life-or-death decision on their behalf.
1 AMA PRA Cat. 1 • 1 ETHICS

The in-hospital DNR law, codified as Senate Bill 11 in the 2017 Texas Legislature, went into effect on April 1, 2018. Ms. Atwood and Jason Morrow, MD, medical director of inpatient palliative medicine at University Health System in San Antonio, examined the legal requirements of the complicated law and associated ethical considerations.

If you’re wondering how Texas' do-not-resuscitate laws might apply to you and your patients, the Texas Medical Association’s new on-demand webinar can help: Do-Not-Resuscitate Order: Updates and Changes.

TMA provides this ready reference guide for physicians to the key portions of Texas' new DNR law. Tap "Add to Home Screen" on your iPhone or "Add Page Shortcut" on your Android phone to keep this guide readily available.

The logistics of entering a valid in-hospital DNR order are about to become considerably more complex. A law taking effect in April lays out new requirements affecting physicians in hospitals or health care facilities.

The patient-physician relationship is unique in modern American life. Patients place their lives in their physicians’ hands. Not only must they trust in their doctors’ knowledge, experience, and skill, but they also must trust that their physician is acting in their best interest — neither motivated nor distracted by competing interests. In return, the physician is responsible for recommending and applying the most appropriate, science-based treatments for the patient’s individual circumstances and medical conditions. All of these pressures are magnified during the often-emotional final days and weeks of a person’s life.