Duty of hospital administrators; liability of hospital administrators and procurement organizations.

(1) If, based on accepted medical standards, a hospital patient is a suitable candidate for organ or tissue donation, the hospital administrator or the hospital administrator’s designee shall, at or near the time of death, notify the appropriate procurement organization, which shall access the donor registry created by s. 765.5155 or any other donor registry to ascertain the existence of an entry in the registry which has not been revoked or a document of gift executed by the decedent. In the absence of an entry in the donor registry, a document of gift, or other properly executed document, the procurement organization shall request:

(a) The patient’s health care surrogate, as authorized in s. 765.512(2); or

(b) If the patient does not have a surrogate, or the surrogate is not reasonably available, any of the persons specified in s. 765.512(3), in the order and manner listed,

to consent to the anatomical gift of the decedent’s body for any purpose specified in this part. Except as provided in s. 765.512, in the absence of actual notice of opposition, consent need only be obtained from the person or persons in the highest priority class reasonably available.

(2) A document of gift is valid if executed in accordance with this part or the laws of the state or country where it was executed and where the person making the anatomical gift was domiciled, has a place of residence, or was a citizen at the time the document of gift was executed.

(3) The agency shall establish rules and guidelines concerning the education of individuals who may be designated to perform the request and the procedures to be used in making the request. The agency is authorized to adopt rules concerning the documentation of the request, where such request is made.

(4) If a document of gift is valid under this section, the laws of this state govern the interpretation of the document of gift.

(5) A document of gift or amendment of an anatomical gift is presumed to be valid unless it was not validly executed or was revoked.

(6) There shall be no civil or criminal liability against any procurement organization certified under s. 765.542 or against any hospital or hospital administrator or designee who complies with the provisions of this part and agency rules or if, in the exercise of reasonable care, a request for organ donation is inappropriate and the gift is not made according to this part and agency rules.

(7) The hospital administrator or a designee shall, at or near the time of death of a potential donor, directly notify the affiliated organ procurement organization of the potential organ donor. The organ procurement organization must offer any organ from such a donor first to patients on a Florida-based local or state organ sharing transplant list. For the purpose of this subsection, the term “transplant list” includes certain categories of national or regional organ sharing for patients of exceptional need or exceptional match, as approved or mandated by the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network, or its agent. This notification may not be made to a tissue bank or eye bank in lieu of the organ procurement organization unless the tissue bank or eye bank is also designated as an organ procurement organization.