Legal & Ethical Decisions
Well-informed patients
At San Ramon Regional Medical Center, we want you to be well-informed if you have to make decisions about your care.
You must understand your treatment. We encourage you to ask the following questions, if applicable:
- Is this procedure or treatment necessary?
- Are there alternative options?
- What are the short-term or long-term results I should expect?
- What risks, if any, are associated?
- What if I deny getting treatment?
Your rights are important and we want to keep you informed of what is available to you. Following are some documents about your healthcare decisions that you may consider asking a lawyer to help you with.
Advance Directives
Advance directives are legal documents that provide instructions in the event you are unable to speak for yourself. They will outline who should oversee your medical care, your end-of-life wishes, a Healthcare Power of Attorney and a Living Will.
DNR Comfort Care Directives
DNR (Do Not Resuscitate) comfort care directives tell healthcare workers what you have requested not to be done such as:
- Start an IV (intravenous) line
- Respiratory assistance
- Breathing tube or artificial airway
- Cardiac monitoring
- Other means of intervention
DNR comfort care directives have options should you need surgery:
- Discontinue advance directives during surgery
- Continue advance directives but modify during surgery
- Request no changes made to DNR comfort care orders