HB5048 would require nursing homes to provide certain residents with Practitioner Order for Life-Sustaining Treatment (POLST) forms. Nursing homes would be required to have an employee or a physician discuss the form with them.
POLST forms are used to determine what kinds of treatments a patient might approve if they are unable to make decisions for their care. After SB 109 passed last year, POLST forms no longer require the signature of a witness. This means that a nursing home patient won't have the security of a witness to make sure the patient understands what they are signing.
The patients with whom nursing homes would be
required to discuss POLST forms fall under two categories:
- a patient who "is at high risk for a
life-threatening clinical event because the person has a serious
life-limiting medical condition, which may include advanced frailty"
- a patient who "has a history of an emergency
department transfer or admission or a hospitalization for the treatment of
a life-threatening emergency or clinical event due to a serious, chronic,
and life-limiting condition, which may include advanced frailty.
This legislation has already passed the Illinois House of Representatives.
