1. A POST form executed in this state or another state or jurisdiction in compliance with the law of that state or jurisdiction shall be deemed valid and enforceable in this state to the extent the form is consistent with the laws of this state, and may be accepted by a health care provider, hospital, or health care facility.

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Terms Used In Iowa Code 144D.3

  • Advanced registered nurse practitioner: means an advanced registered nurse practitioner licensed pursuant to chapter 152 or 152E. See Iowa Code 144D.1
  • Health care facility: means health care facility as defined in section 135C. See Iowa Code 144D.1
  • Health care provider: means an individual, including an emergency medical care provider and an individual providing home and community-based services, and including a home health agency, licensed, certified, or otherwise authorized or permitted by the law of this state to administer health care in the ordinary course of business or in the practice of a profession. See Iowa Code 144D.1
  • Hospital: means hospital as defined in section 135B. See Iowa Code 144D.1
  • Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
  • Legal representative: means an individual authorized to execute a POST form on behalf of a patient who is not competent to do so, in the order of priority set out in section 144A. See Iowa Code 144D.1
  • Patient: means an individual who is frail and elderly or who has a chronic, critical medical condition or a terminal illness and for which a physician orders for scope of treatment form is consistent with the individual's goals of care. See Iowa Code 144D.1
  • Person: means a natural person. See Iowa Code 154A.1
  • Physician: means a person licensed to practice medicine and surgery or osteopathic medicine and surgery in this state. See Iowa Code 144D.1
  • Physician assistant: means a person licensed as a physician assistant under chapter 148C. See Iowa Code 144D.1
  • POST form: means a document containing medical orders which may be relied upon across medical settings that consolidates and summarizes a patient's preferences for life-sustaining treatments and interventions and acts as a complement to and does not supersede any valid advance directive. See Iowa Code 144D.1
  • State: means a state, territory, or possession of the United States, the District of Columbia, or the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. See Iowa Code 152E.3
 2. A health care provider, hospital, or health care facility may comply with an executed POST form, notwithstanding that the physician, advanced registered nurse practitioner, or physician assistant who signed the POST form does not have admitting privileges at the hospital or health care facility providing health care or treatment.
 3. A POST form may be revoked at any time and in any manner by which the patient or a patient’s legal representative is able to communicate the patient’s intent to revoke, without regard to the patient’s mental or physical condition. A revocation is only effective as to the health care provider, hospital, or health care facility upon communication to the health care provider, hospital, or health care facility by the patient, the patient’s legal representative, or by another to whom the revocation was communicated.
 4. In the absence of actual notice of the revocation of a POST form, a health care provider, hospital, health care facility, or any other person who complies with a POST form shall not be subject to civil or criminal liability or professional disciplinary action for actions taken under this chapter which are in accordance with reasonable medical standards. A health care provider, hospital, health care facility, or other person against whom criminal or civil liability or professional disciplinary action is asserted because of conduct in compliance with this chapter may interpose the restriction on liability in this subsection as an absolute defense.
 5. A health care provider, hospital, or health care facility that is unwilling to comply with an executed POST form based on policy, religious beliefs, or moral convictions shall take all reasonable steps to transfer the patient to another health care provider, hospital, or health care facility.