RT Book, Section
A1 Kapp, Marshall B.
A2 Hall, Jesse B.
A2 Schmidt, Gregory A.
A2 Wood, Lawrence D.H.
SR Print(0)
ID 2291089
T1 Chapter 5. Legal Issues in Critical Care
T2 Principles of Critical Care, 3e
YR 2005
FD 2005
PB The McGraw-Hill Companies
PP New York, NY
SN 9780071416405
LK accesssurgery.mhmedical.com/content.aspx?aid=2291089
RD 2023/03/30
AB In  order  to  be  considered  legally  effective,  consent  to  medical  treatment  must  meet  three  tests:  (1)  it  must  be  voluntary;  (2)  it  must  be  adequately  informed  or  knowing;  and  (3)  it  is  given  by  an  individual  with  adequate  mental  capacity  and  legal  authority.Whereas  a  variety  of  state  laws  in  the  United  States  pertain  to  decisional  capacity  and  surrogate  decision  making,  in  most  cases  the  physician  relies  on  family  members  as  the  surrogate  decision  makers  for  an  incapacitated  patient,  even  in  the  absence  of  a  specific  statute,  advance  directive,  or  court  order  empowering  the  family.An  increasing  percentage  of  patients,  especially  as  the  population  ages,  lack  available,  willing  relatives  or  friends  to  act  as  surrogate  decision  makers.  In  such  cases  physicians  should  seek  guidance  from  living  wills  or  other  forms  of  advance  directives,  when  these  exist.Neither  a  patient  nor  his  or  her  family  has  a  legal  right  to,  nor  does  the  physician  have  the  obligation  to  provide,  medical  treatment  that  would  be  futile—that  is,  nonbeneficial—for  that  patient.As  directors  of  critical  care  units,  critical  care  physicians  should  participate  in  creating  institutional  protocols  that  delineate  operational  principles  of  the  critical  care  team  and  the  individual  physician's  supervisory  responsibilities.