Readers may recall the horrible case of an elderly woman collapsing and being refused CPR by the employee of a senior apartment complex during a 911 call. Why? The business had a policy forcing employees to refuse such care.
Now, AB 633 has passed both houses of the California Legislature and is expected to be passed by Governor Brown. From the bill:
An employer shall not adopt or enforce a policy precluding prohibiting an employee from voluntarily providing emergency medical services, including, but not limited to, cardiopulmonary resuscitation, in response to a medical emergency
Logically, the law will not apply to long term care and other health facilities in which a patient has a DNR on the chart.
It is hard to believe that a law must be enacted to stop businesses from enacting “No CPR” policies. But, given the time in which we live, apparently so.