84R1076 LED-D
By: Phelan H.B. No. 3912
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to the authority of advanced practice registered nurses to
pronounce death and sign death certificates.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Section 671.001(d), Health and Safety Code, is
amended to read as follows:
(d) A registered nurse, including an advanced practice
registered nurse, or physician assistant may determine and
pronounce a person dead in situations other than those described by
Subsection (b) if permitted by written policies of a licensed
health care facility, institution, or entity providing services to
that person. Those policies must include physician assistants who
are credentialed or otherwise permitted to practice at the
facility, institution, or entity. If the facility, institution, or
entity has an organized nursing staff and an organized medical
staff or medical consultant, the nursing staff and medical staff or
consultant shall jointly develop and approve those policies. The
board shall adopt rules to govern policies for facilities,
institutions, or entities that do not have organized nursing staffs
and organized medical staffs or medical consultants.
SECTION 2. Section 671.002(a), Health and Safety Code, is
amended to read as follows:
(a) A physician who determines death in accordance with
Section 671.001(b) or a registered nurse, including an advanced
practice registered nurse, or physician assistant who determines
death in accordance with Section 671.001(d) is not liable for civil
damages or subject to criminal prosecution for the physician's,
registered nurse's, or physician assistant's actions or the actions
of others based on the determination of death.
SECTION 3. Sections 193.005(a), (b), and (c), Health and
Safety Code, are amended to read as follows:
(a) A person required to file a death certificate or fetal
death certificate shall obtain the required medical certification
from an attending physician or advanced practice registered nurse
if the death occurred under medical attendance for the care and
treatment of the condition or disease process that contributed to
the death.
(b) The attending physician or advanced practice registered
nurse shall complete the medical certification not later than five
days after receiving the death certificate.
(c) An associate physician, the chief medical officer of the
institution where the death occurred, an advanced practice
registered nurse, or the physician who performed an autopsy on the
decedent may complete the medical certification if:
(1) the attending physician or advanced practice
registered nurse is unavailable;
(2) the attending physician or advanced practice
registered nurse approves; and
(3) the person completing the medical certification
has access to the medical history of the case and the death is due to
natural causes.
SECTION 4. This Act takes effect immediately if it receives
a vote of two-thirds of all the members elected to each house, as
provided by Section 39, Article III, Texas Constitution. If this
Act does not receive the vote necessary for immediate effect, this
Act takes effect September 1, 2015.