Posted on 04/20/2010 4:16:08 PM PDT by Cindy
Note: The following text is a quote:
www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/presidential-memorandum-hospital-visitation
Home • Briefing Room • Presidential Actions • Presidential Memoranda
The White House
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release April 15, 2010 Presidential Memorandum - Hospital Visitation
MEMORANDUM FOR THE SECRETARY OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
SUBJECT: Respecting the Rights of Hospital Patients to Receive Visitors and to Designate Surrogate Decision Makers for Medical Emergencies
There are few moments in our lives that call for greater compassion and companionship than when a loved one is admitted to the hospital. In these hours of need and moments of pain and anxiety, all of us would hope to have a hand to hold, a shoulder on which to lean -- a loved one to be there for us, as we would be there for them.
Yet every day, all across America, patients are denied the kindnesses and caring of a loved one at their sides -- whether in a sudden medical emergency or a prolonged hospital stay. Often, a widow or widower with no children is denied the support and comfort of a good friend. Members of religious orders are sometimes unable to choose someone other than an immediate family member to visit them and make medical decisions on their behalf. Also uniquely affected are gay and lesbian Americans who are often barred from the bedsides of the partners with whom they may have spent decades of their lives -- unable to be there for the person they love, and unable to act as a legal surrogate if their partner is incapacitated.
For all of these Americans, the failure to have their wishes respected concerning who may visit them or make medical decisions on their behalf has real onsequences. It means that doctors and nurses do not always have the best information about patients' medications and medical histories and that friends and certain family members are unable to serve as intermediaries to help communicate patients' needs. It means that a stressful and at times terrifying experience for patients is senselessly compounded by indignity and unfairness. And it means that all too often, people are made to suffer or even to pass away alone, denied the comfort of companionship in their final moments while a loved one is left worrying and pacing down the hall.
Many States have taken steps to try to put an end to these problems. North Carolina recently amended its Patients' Bill of Rights to give each patient "the right to designate visitors who shall receive the same visitation privileges as the patient's immediate family members, regardless of whether the visitors are legally related to the patient" -- a right that applies in every hospital in the State. Delaware, Nebraska, and Minnesota have adopted similar laws.
My Administration can expand on these important steps to ensure that patients can receive compassionate care and equal treatment during their hospital stays. By this memorandum, I request that you take the following steps:
1. Initiate appropriate rulemaking, pursuant to your authority under 42 U.S.C. 1395x and other relevant provisions of law, to ensure that hospitals that participate in Medicare or Medicaid respect the rights of patients to designate visitors. It should be made clear that designated visitors, including individuals designated by legally valid advance directives (such as durable powers of attorney and health care proxies), should enjoy visitation privileges that are no more restrictive than those that immediate family members enjoy. You should also provide that participating hospitals may not deny visitation privileges on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability. The rulemaking should take into account the need for hospitals to restrict visitation in medically appropriate circumstances as well as the clinical decisions that medical professionals make about a patient's care or treatment.
2. Ensure that all hospitals participating in Medicare or Medicaid are in full compliance with regulations, codified at 42 CFR 482.13 and 42 CFR 489.102(a), promulgated to guarantee that all patients' advance directives, such as durable powers of attorney and health care proxies, are respected, and that patients' representatives otherwise have the right to make informed decisions regarding patients' care. Additionally, I request that you issue new guidelines, pursuant to your authority under 42 U.S.C. 1395cc and other relevant provisions of law, and provide technical assistance on how hospitals participating in Medicare or Medicaid can best comply with the regulations and take any additional appropriate measures to fully enforce the regulations.
3. Provide additional recommendations to me, within 180 days of the date of this memorandum, on actions the Department of Health and Human Services can take to address hospital visitation, medical decisionmaking, or other health care issues that affect LGBT patients and their families.
This memorandum is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.
You are hereby authorized and directed to publish this memorandum in the Federal Register.
BARACK OBAMA
Smoke and mirrors, get the gays off my back for a little while BS from Obama.
People have always had the right to do this. You don’t have to designate a spouse; you could designate some homeless guy who begged outside your office if that appeals to you.
And you can designate whomever you want to make your final decisions. If some random person of the opposite sex comes in, that doesn’t mean they get to make decisions for you; you have to a document appointing them. The same is true for gays: they have to have a document. But nobody cares whose name is on the document or what sex they are.
Bambi is such a putz. And such a sleazy, manipulative putz.
It’s a pre-emptive step to overturning *don’t ask, don’t tell*. Gays in the military will be allowed to marry, or name their partners in dependent benefit assignments. Probably will be allowed to adopt and qualify for base housing for dependents. Also will be deployed together.
Be prepared - it’s not your granpa’s military!
Lets be honest...if you wanted Ossama Bin Laden to come and visit you...you’d just tell the nurse, and she’d let the guy in. It was that simple. But for this action, I can’t see how we can avoid not giving him another Nobel Peace Prize.
Me too, but I’m guessing he is the last person most would like to see.
What a bunch of crap and waste of breath. As previously stated, all you have to do is have an advanced directive done. If you forget, we ask you on admission if you would like to make a verbal direction good for that admission. If you have named someone who would not be “traditional”, you each should keep a copy of it in case of emergencies.
Personally I am about as traditional values as they get, but I realize that the world is going to do its thing. So I don’t get caught up in who the visitors are. If the patient wants them there, thats it for me. I’ve seen more disruption in the hospital in the cases of spouse vs girlfriend and the cases of multitudes of feuding children.
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