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Tex. Health & Safety Code § 313.002

DEFINITIONS

Known as the Consent to Medical Treatment Act

The act spans §§ 313–313 (7 sections).

Applied in 3 court decisions — leading case Parvin v. Dean (1999)

Most recently applied in COVENANT HEALTH SYSTEM v. Barnett (May 2011)

Added by Acts 1993, 73rd Leg., ch. 407, Sec. 1, eff

How often courts cite this section

199920002010201110
citing decisions per year

Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.

In this chapter:

(1) "Adult" means a person 18 years of age or older or a person under 18 years of age who has had the disabilities of minority removed.

(2) "Attending physician" means the physician with primary responsibility for a patient's treatment and care.

(3) "Decision-making capacity" means the ability to understand and appreciate the nature and consequences of a decision regarding medical treatment and the ability to reach an informed decision in the matter.

(3-a) "Home and community support services agency" means a facility licensed under Chapter 142.

(4) "Hospital" means a facility licensed under Chapter 241.

(5) "Incapacitated" means lacking the ability, based on reasonable medical judgment, to understand and appreciate the nature and consequences of a treatment decision, including the significant benefits and harms of and reasonable alternatives to any proposed treatment decision.

(6) "Medical treatment" means a health care treatment, service, or procedure designed to maintain or treat a patient's physical or mental condition, as well as preventative care.

(7) "Nursing home" means a facility licensed under Chapter 242.

(8) "Patient" means a person who:

(A) is admitted to a hospital;

(B) is residing in a nursing home;

(C) is receiving services from a home and community support services agency; or

(D) is an inmate of a county or municipal jail.

(9) "Physician" means:

(A) a physician licensed by the Texas State Board of Medical Examiners; or

(B) a physician with proper credentials who holds a commission in a branch of the armed services of the United States and who is serving on active duty in this state.

(10) "Surrogate decision-maker" means an individual with decision-making capacity who is identified as the person who has authority to consent to medical treatment on behalf of an incapacitated patient in need of medical treatment.

Official source: Texas Constitution and Statutes. Reproduced from public-domain Texas statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.