Care facilities: incapacitated patients rights.

When a resident of a skilled nursing facility is prescribed or ordered a medical intervention that requires informed consent, the patient lacks capacity, and there is no person with legal authority to consent, existing law requires a skilled nursing facility to conduct an interdisciplinary team review of the prescribed medical intervention prior to the administration of the medical intervention, as specified. Existing case law requires notice and an opportunity to be heard before a patient is determined to lack capacity for this purpose. This bill would state the intent of the Legislature to enact legislation that would appropriately implement the decision in California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform v. Smith (2019) 38 Cal.App.5th 838, which required that nursing homes adopt, and the State Department of Public Health to enforce, notice and hearing requirements when determining medical incompetence for purposes of Section 1418.8 of the Health and Safety Code, as well as establishing requirements for the composition of interdisciplinary teams for incapacitated patients.