Title 7 — Human Health Care and Safety.

The Commission shall select its own Chairperson, by vote.

All members shall serve without compensation, but expenses incurred by the Commission as a whole, or by its individual members, when duly authorized, will become an obligation against appropriate District government and federal funds designated for that purpose.

Necessary staff services shall be supplied in accordance with positions and funding approved in the current District government budget. In addition, the Director of the Office on Aging shall provide information and technical assistance as required under § 7-503.03.

The Commission on Aging shall: (a)(1) Serve as an advocate for older persons in the District of Columbia; (2) Review and submit to the Mayor, the Council of the District of Columbia, and the Office on Aging, an annual report including comments on the analysis of the needs of the …

For the purposes of this subchapter, the term: (1) “District” means the District of Columbia. (2) “Eligible person” means an individual who is 60 years of age or older or is mentally or physically ill, infirm, or has a disability. (3) “Service credit” means the unit of exchange u…

(a) Within 8 months after September 13, 1986, the Mayor shall establish a 3-year pilot volunteer service credit program (“program”) through which individuals may volunteer targeted services and in return earn service credits that may be subsequently exchanged for targeted service…

Targeted services shall consist of those tasks that the Mayor has determined will foster the independence, self-sufficiency, and noninstitutionalized living of eligible persons and shall fall within the following categories: (1) Those tasks, such as respite care, personal groomin…

(a) To initiate the program, the Mayor shall establish a pool of service credits to be awarded to eligible persons who are in need of targeted services. The Mayor may award credits to eligible persons directly from this pool or may distribute all or part of these credits to spons…

(a) To ensure that outstanding service credits are promptly honored when exchanged for targeted services, the Mayor and each sponsor shall develop contingency plans and engage in diligent volunteer recruitment. Except as otherwise provided in subsections (b) and (c) of this secti…

Each sponsor shall have an advisory committee composed of persons skilled in the provision of targeted services and persons who represent or advocate the interests of eligible persons. An advisory committee shall monitor the sponsor’s compliance with program requirements, make re…

In addition to the volunteer service credit program, the Mayor may establish service credit demonstration projects, such as an intergenerational service program involving recipients who would not otherwise qualify as “eligible persons” under § 7-531.01(2). Services provided throu…

Volunteers shall not, by virtue of their participation in the program or a demonstration project, be entitled to monetary compensation or considered for any purpose to be employees or agents of either the District or a sponsor. Sponsors may reimburse volunteers for necessary expe…

With respect to their participation in the program or a demonstration project, the District government and its agencies, officials, and employees and sponsors and their advisory committees, officials, and employees shall be immune from civil or criminal liability if they have act…

The Mayor shall, within 8 months after September 13, 1986, and pursuant to subchapter I of Chapter 5 of Title 2, issue all rules necessary to carry out the purposes of this subchapter. These rules may include, but shall not necessarily be limited to, standards and procedures with…

The Mayor shall prepare and submit to the Council annual reports on the volunteer service credit program and any demonstration projects established under § 7-531.07. These reports shall at a minimum include: (1) A description of the participating population, including the number …

An individual who has sustained either: (1) irreversible cessation of circulatory and respiratory functions; or (2) irreversible cessation of all functions of the entire brain, including the brain stem; is dead. A determination of death must be made in accordance with accepted me…

For the purposes of this subchapter, the term: (1) “Attending physician” means the physician selected by, or assigned to, the patient who has primary responsibility for the treatment and care of the patient. (2) “Declaration” means a witnessed document in writing, voluntarily exe…

(a) Any persons 18 years of age or older may execute a declaration directing the withholding or withdrawal of life-sustaining procedures from themselves should they be in a terminal condition. The declaration made pursuant to this subchapter shall be: (1) In writing; (2) Signed b…

A declaration shall have no effect if the declarant is a patient in an intermediate care or skilled care facility as defined in the Health Care Facilities Regulation, enacted June 14, 1974 (Reg. 74-15; 20 DCR 1423 ) at the time the declaration is executed unless 1 of the 2 witnes…

(a) A declaration may be revoked at any time only by the declarant or at the express direction of the declarant, without regard to the declarant’s mental state by any of the following methods: (1) By being obliterated, burnt, torn, or otherwise destroyed or defaced by the declara…

(a) An attending physician who has been notified of the existence of a declaration executed under this subchapter, without delay after the diagnosis of a terminal condition of the declarant, shall take the necessary steps to provide for written certification and confirmation of t…

(a) The desires of a qualified patient shall at all times supersede the effect of the declaration. (b) If the qualified patient is incompetent at the time of the decision to withhold or withdraw life-sustaining procedures, a declaration executed in accordance with § 7-622 is pres…

(a) No physician, licensed health care professional, health facility, or employee thereof who in good faith and pursuant to reasonable medical standards causes or participates in the withholding or withdrawing of life-sustaining procedures from a qualified patient pursuant to a d…

(a) The withholding or withdrawal of life-sustaining procedures from a qualified patient in accordance with the provisions of this subchapter shall not, for any purpose, constitute a suicide and shall not constitute the crime of assisting suicide. (b) The making of a declaration …

(a) Nothing in this subchapter shall impair or supersede any legal right or legal responsibility which any person may have to effect the withholding or withdrawal of life-sustaining procedures in any lawful manner. In such respect the provisions of this subchapter are cumulative.…

Nothing in this subchapter shall be construed to condone, authorize, or approve mercy-killing or to permit any affirmative or deliberate act or omission to end a human life other than to permit the natural process of dying as provided in this subchapter.

For the purposes of this chapter, the term: (1) “Advanced airway management” means direct ventilation of the lungs through an endotracheal tube by mouth or stoma. (2) “Advanced life support” means advanced airway management, including endotracheal intubation; defibrillation; admi…

(a) The following persons may execute a comfort care order to communicate the decision that the person who is the subject of the order shall not be resuscitated if the person experiences cardiac arrest or respiratory arrest as a result of a specified medical or terminal condition…

(a) The comfort care order shall: (1) Be a distinctive form approved by the Mayor, sequentially numbered, and printed on security paper; (2) Include a statement describing the specific medical or terminal condition of the patient and the circumstances under which the patient shal…

(a) EMS personnel shall recognize only a comfort care bracelet or necklace for purposes of withholding cardiopulmonary resuscitation or advanced life support. (b) The Mayor shall approve the design for a comfort care bracelet and necklace. The bracelet and necklace shall be easil…

A patient, or the patient’s authorized decision-maker or surrogate, may revoke a comfort care order at any time by: (1) Removing, cutting, destroying, defacing, or discarding the comfort care bracelet; (2) Directing another person to remove, cut, destroy, deface, or discard the b…

(a) If EMS personnel encounter a person who is in cardiac or respiratory arrest and the person is wearing a comfort care bracelet or necklace, EMS personnel shall determine whether the comfort care bracelet or necklace is intact or has been defaced. If the comfort care bracelet o…

(a) If EMS personnel encounter a patient who is in cardiac or respiratory arrest and the patient is wearing a comfort care bracelet or necklace that is intact or has not been defaced, but the patient, or the patient’s authorized decision-maker or surrogate, orally requests that E…

EMS personnel may provide the following interventions to a patient who is wearing an intact comfort care bracelet or necklace that has not been defaced to comfort the patient or alleviate pain: (1) Clear the airway, excluding artificial ventilation, esophageal obturator airway, o…

EMS personnel shall recognize a comfort care bracelet, necklace, or similar identifier issued by Maryland and Virginia as if issued in accordance with this chapter and shall act on the identifier in accordance with this chapter.

The Mayor shall provide training for EMS personnel on the implementation of this chapter and initiate and participate in programs designed to educate the public with respect to this chapter.

(a) No licensed health care professional, EMS personnel, health care facility, government entity, or government employee shall be subject to criminal or civil liability, or be found to have committed an unprofessional act because the person, in good faith, resuscitates, withholds…

Any person who falsifies or forges a comfort care order, willfully conceals or withholds personal knowledge of the revocation of a comfort care order contrary to the wishes of a person who has executed a comfort care order, or places a comfort care bracelet on a person for whom a…

(a) Withholding or withdrawing resuscitation from a patient in accordance with this chapter shall not constitute a suicide or a crime of assisting suicide. (b) The execution or issuance of a comfort care order pursuant to this chapter shall not affect the sale, procurement, or is…

The Mayor may charge a reasonable fee for a comfort care order, comfort care bracelet or necklace, and for processing a comfort care order. The fee shall be established by rule.

The Mayor, pursuant to subchapter I of Chapter 5 of Title 2 shall issue rules to implement the provisions of this chapter.

This chapter shall apply 90 days after April 3, 2001.

Repealed Repealed.

For the purposes of this chapter, the term: (a)(1) “Administrator” means the person who is responsible for the day-to-day operation and management of a long-term care facility, including, in the case of a community residence facility, the residence director. (2) “Court” means the…

There is established a Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program for the District of Columbia within the Office on Aging. The program shall provide a comprehensive continuum of advocacy services for older persons and other persons who are residents in the District, which shall include: (1…

(a) The program shall be administered by a full-time ombudsman and shall be under the Director of the Office on Aging (“Director”) or his or her designee. The Director shall appoint the ombudsman for a term of 2 years and approve of the designee of the ombudsman. The ombudsman sh…

(a) The ombudsman shall have training and experience in the following areas: (1) Gerontology, long-term care, health care, or relevant social services program; (2) The legal system; (3) Dispute resolution techniques, including investigation, mediation, or negotiation; and (4) Lon…

(a) The ombudsman shall: (1) Receive, investigate, and resolve complaints or concerns made by or on behalf of residents; (2) Promote the well-being and quality of life of each resident; (3) Encourage the development and the expansion of the activities of the program in all wards …

(a) The ombudsman and his or her designee shall have access to any record that is necessary to carry out his or her responsibilities under this chapter. (b) The ombudsman or his or her designee may initiate an investigation of a long-term care facility independent of the receipt …

(a) The program shall protect the confidentiality of the records (electronic or hard copy) of the residents and employees. (b) No information or records (electronic or hard copy) maintained by the program shall be disclosed to the public. (c) Except as provided in subsection (d) …