According to Ohio law, the purpose of Ohio Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care is to give the person (agent) you designate broad powers to make health care decisions for you
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POA gives power to require, consent to, or withdraw any type of personal care or medical treatment for any physical or mental condition and to admit you to or discharge you from any hospital, home, or other institution |
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You have the right to make decisions about your health care. No health care may be given to you over your objection, and necessary health care may not be stopped or withheld if you object.
Ohio Power of Attorney for Health Care is an important legal document. This legal document gives the person you designate (the attorney in fact) the power to make most health care decisions for you if you lose the capacity to make informed health care decisions for yourself. This power is effective only when your attending physician determines that you have lost the capacity to make informed health care decisions for yourself and, notwithstanding this document, as long as you have the capacity to make informed health care decisions for yourself, you retain the right to make all medical and other health care decisions for yourself. You may include specific limitations in this document on the authority of the attorney in fact to make health care decisions for you. Subject to any specific limitations you include in the Ohio Power of Attorney for Health Care, if your attending physician determines that you have lost the capacity to make an informed decision on a health care matter, the attorney in fact generally will be authorized by this document to make health care decisions for you to the same extent as you could make those decisions yourself, if you had the capacity to do so. The authority of the attorney in fact to make health care decisions for you generally will include the authority to give informed consent, to refuse to give informed consent, or to withdraw informed consent to any care, treatment, service, or procedure to maintain, diagnose, or treat a physical or mental condition. However, even if the attorney in fact has general authority to make health care decisions for you under the Ohio Power of Attorney for Health Care, the attorney in fact NEVER will be authorized to do any of the following: (1) Refuse or withdraw informed consent to life-sustaining treatment (unless your attending physician and one other physician who examines you determine, to a reasonable degree of medical certainty and in accordance with reasonable medical standards, that either of the following applies:
(3) Refuse or withdraw informed consent to health care for you if you are pregnant and if the refusal or withdrawal would terminate the pregnancy (unless the pregnancy or health care would pose a substantial risk to your life, or unless your attending physician and at least one other physician who examines you determine, to a reasonable degree of medical certainty and in accordance with reasonable medical standards, that the fetus would not be born alive); (4) Refuse or withdraw informed consent to the provision of artificially or technologically administered sustenance (nutrition) or fluids (hydration) to you, unless:
Additionally, when exercising his authority to make health care decisions for you, the attorney in fact will have to act consistently with your desires or, if your desires are unknown, to act in your best interest. You may express your desires to the attorney in fact by including them in the Ohio Power of Attorney for Health Care or by making them known to him in another manner. When acting pursuant to the Ohio Power of Attorney for Health Care, the attorney in fact will have the same rights that you have to receive information about proposed health care, to review health care records, and to consent to the disclosure of health care records. You can limit that right in the Ohio Power of Attorney for Health Care if you so choose. Generally, you may designate any competent adult as the attorney in fact under this document. However, you CANNOT designate your attending physician or the administrator of any nursing home in which you are receiving care as the attorney in fact under the Ohio Power of Attorney for Health Care. Additionally, you CANNOT designate an employee or agent of your attending physician, or an employee or agent of a health care facility at which you are being treated, as the attorney in fact under the Ohio Power of Attorney for Health Care, unless either type of employee or agent is a competent adult and related to you by blood, marriage, or adoption, or unless either type of employee or agent is a competent adult and you and the employee or agent are members of the same religious order. Ohio Power of Attorney for Health Care has no expiration date under Ohio law, but you may choose to specify a date upon which your durable power of attorney for health care generally will expire. However, if you specify an expiration date and then lack the capacity to make informed health care decisions for yourself on that date, the document and the power it grants to your attorney in fact will continue in effect until you regain the capacity to make informed health care decisions for yourself. You have the right to revoke the designation of the attorney in fact and the right to revoke this entire document at any time and in any manner. Any such revocation generally will be effective when you express your intention to make the revocation. However, if you made your attending physician aware of the Ohio Power of Attorney for Health Care, any such revocation will be effective only when you communicate it to your attending physician. If you execute the Ohio Power of Attorney for Health Care and create a valid durable power of attorney for health care with it, it will revoke any prior, valid durable power of attorney for health care that you created, unless you indicate otherwise in the Ohio Power of Attorney for Health Care. Ohio Power of Attorney for Health Care is not valid as a durable power of attorney for health care unless it is acknowledged before a notary public OR is signed by at least two adult witnesses who are present when you sign or acknowledge your signature. No person who is related to you by blood, marriage, or adoption may be a witness. The attorney in fact, your attending physician, and the administrator of any nursing home in which you are receiving care also are ineligible to be witnesses. You should talk with your family, your health-care professional, your attorney, and any agent or attorney-in-fact that you appoint about your health care decision to make one or more advance directives. If they know what health care you want, they will find it easier to follow your wishes. If you cancel or change an advance health care directive in the future, remember to tell these same people about the change or cancellation. Do not sign the Ohio Power of Attorney for Health Care unless you clearly understand it. It is suggested that you keep the original of this document on file with your physician and family members. If there is anything about this form that you do not understand, you should ask a lawyer to explain it to you. |
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