New Jersey Senate Mandates Advance Care Planning Training & Education

The New Jersey Senate has passed S.B. 3116. If enacted, this legislation would require healthcare facilities to engage in much of the same advance care planning outreach that the federal Patient Self Determination Act tried to require thirty years ago.

S.B. 3116 requires assisted living facilities, dementia care homes, nursing homes, assisted living residences, comprehensive personal care homes, residential health care facilities, hospitals, and long-term care facilities to require all administrative personnel and professional staff to complete an annual training on advance care planning, end-of-life care, and the use of advance directives and
POLST forms. 

These facilities are additionally to provide patients, residents and their families with educational materials on POLST forms, advance directives, and hospice and palliative care, and develop and implement policies to identify and address end-of-life care issues for patients and residents upon admission to the facility. 

Finally, S.B. 3116 authorizes the Department of Health to suspend the license of any facility that fails to comply with these requirements.