NC H441

Requires hospitals licensed in North Carolina to provide patients or their legal guardians at least one opportunity to designate a caregiver within 24 hours of hospital entry and before discharge or transfer.

Hospitals must record the designated caregiver's name, relationship to patient, telephone number, and address in the patient's medical record, and notify the caregiver of discharge or transfer no later than four hours before it occurs.

Hospitals must provide designated caregivers with written discharge plans describing after-care needs and must give live demonstrations of all necessary after-care tasks (wound care, medication management, medical equipment operation) at least 24 hours before discharge.

Patients or guardians may decline to designate a caregiver or may refuse consent for hospitals to release medical information to the caregiver, with the hospital documenting these decisions in the medical record.

Effective January 1, 2018; does not create private lawsuits against hospitals or supersede existing legal remedies and does not obligate designated individuals to actually perform after-care tasks.