Patients and families who desire that responding Emergency
Medical Services personnel limit patient care to humane comfort measures
and to not provide resuscitation efforts in the event of cardiac or respiratory
arrest should provide responders the original copy of a valid Virginia
Department of Health Durable Do Not Resuscitate order.
This Durable DNR can be issued only by the patient's physician.
With the exception of certain copies of an older document known as the "Virginia EMS DNR," Emergency Medical Services personnel are precluded by law from honoring all other forms of "Do Not Resuscitate" orders outside of licensed medical facilities (Example: in a patient's home, on the street, while enroute in transport to a hospital). There is no longer a requirement for an individual have a "terminal" condition to be issued this document.
Emergency Medical Services personnel are precluded from honoring this Durable DNR order if it is located elsewhere and cannot be presented to them in original form.
As an alternative to having the document available to present to responding Emergency Medical Services Personnel, Durable DNR Bracelets and Necklaces are available. One must first obtain the Durable DNR order (paper document), then obtain the alternative DNR device from an approved vendor. Sources and detailed instructions are posted on the Office of Emergency Medical Services website.
Information explaining the Durable DNR order and how physicians may obtain the form for issue to patients is posted in several documents on the Virginia Office of Medical Services website. The document "Durable DNR Questions & Answers for General Public" is probably the most informative.
Those documents may be found at
Each document posted is in Adobe Acrobat PDF format. A free copy of Adobe Reader is available for download at:
