The Hospital medical staff
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These guidelines were developed by the American Hospital Association's Committee on Hospital Governing Boards to suggest to hospitals ways of achieving physician participation in governing board activities and to identify the decisions that must be made in doing so. The guidelines take into consideration the responses of 2,900 nongovernmental not-for-profit hospitals to a 1976 AHA survey among all hospitals. The document was approved by the AHA's House of Delegates on February 1, 1978.
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No code orders, lacking explicit definition and direct legal authority, pose many liability hazards for hospital medical staffs dealing with terminally ill patients. The decision to withhold life-support procedures must consider the high risk involved. Various situations that might entail no code orders are presented along with suggestions concerning the use of these orders.