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White House Directs HHS to Widen Hospital Visitation Privileges
Rules to "ensure that hospitals that participate in Medicare or Medicaid respect the rights of patients to designate visitors," will be promulgated by the Department of Health and Human Services, the White House announced overnight.
President Barack Obama, in a memo to HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, asks that such visitation privileges be "no more restrictive than those that immediate family members enjoy." The directives also seek guarantees "that all patients' advance directives, such as durable powers of attorney and health care proxies, are respected."
In his memorandum, the President says the new rules seek to address the "indignity and unfairness" of current practices in which "people are made to suffer or even to pass away alone, denied the comfort of companionship in their final moments while a loved one is left worrying and pacing down the hall."
The Washington Post calls the decision "perhaps the most significant step so far in [the President's] efforts to expand the rights of gay Americans." The Post story says: "The new rules will not apply only to gays. They also will affect widows and widowers who have been unable to receive visits from a friend or companion. And they would allow members of some religious orders to designate someone other than a family member to make medical decisions."
LINK(S):
White House memorandum (Free)
Washington Post story (One-time registration required)
Published in Physician's First Watch April 16, 2010
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