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2000 SESSION

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HB 1090 Organ donations.

Introduced by: L. Preston Bryant, Jr. | all patrons    ...    notes | add to my profiles

SUMMARY AS PASSED: (all summaries)

Organ donations. Requires each hospital in Virginia to establish a protocol for organ donation, in compliance with the Health Care Financing Administration's (HCFA) regulations, that includes (i) an agreement with an organ procurement organization designated in HCFA regulations for routine contact; (ii) the notification of organ procurement organizations in a timely manner of all deaths and imminent deaths in the hospital; (iii) the authorization of an organ procurement organization to determine the suitability of the decedent or patient for organ donation, and, in absence of an arrangement with any eye bank or tissue bank, the suitability for tissue and eye donation; (iv) an agreement with at least one tissue bank and at least one eye bank for retrieval, processing, preservation, storage, and distribution of tissues and eyes; (v) a process for collaboration with the designated organ procurement organization to inform the family of each potential donor of the option to donate organs, tissues, or eyes or to decline to donate; (vi) the requirement that an individual making contact with the family must have completed a course in the methodology for approaching potential donor families and requesting organ or tissue donation offered or approved by the organ procurement organization and designed in conjunction with the tissue and eye bank community, encouraging discretion and sensitivity according to the specific circumstances, views, and beliefs of the relevant family; and (vii) the coordination of the hospital with the organ procurement organization in educating the staff responsible for contacting the organ procurement organization's personnel on donation issues, concerning the proper review of death records for identification of potential donors and the proper procedures for maintaining potential donors while necessary testing and placement of potential donated organs, tissues, or eyes take place. This procedure must be followed, without exception, unless the relevant decedent or patient has expressed opposition to organ donation, the hospital administrator or his designee knows of this opposition, and no donor card or other relevant document can be found. This bill also (i) clarifies when the decedent's or patient's medical records may be disclosed; (ii) removes or revises some archaic language; (iii) clarifies various definitions; (iv) affirms that a donor document that is not revoked by the donor before death is irrevocable and does not require the consent or concurrence of any person after the donor's death; and (vi) notes, in several places, that no family member, guardian, agent named pursuant to an advance directive or person responsible for the decedent's estate can refuse to honor the donor designation, seek to revoke the donor's wishes or, in any advance directive, seek to avoid honoring the donor designation.


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