---
type: "Bill"
title: "Physician Orders for Life Sustaining Treatment forms."
description: "Existing law defines a request regarding resuscitative measures to mean a written document, signed by an individual, as specified, and the physician, that directs a health care provider regarding resuscitative measures, and includes a Physician Orders for Life Sustaining Treatment form (POLST form) . Existing law requires a physician to treat a patient in accordance with the POLST form and specifies the criteria for creation of a POLST form, including that the form be completed by a health care provider based on patient preferences and medical indications, and signed by a physician and the patient or his or her legally recognized health care decisionmaker."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ca"
legislature: "California Legislature"
session: "20152016"
identifier: "AB 637"
citation: "California AB 637 (20152016)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Physician Orders for Life Sustaining Treatment forms."]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Campos"]
version_count: 4
action_count: 15
vote_count: 4
first_action: "2015-02-24"
last_action: "2015-08-17"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/dda0dc22-2e1e-425a-a295-f8209ef6ca73"
source_url: "http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB637"
source_hash: "c2da0d115b141d5558f45828aceb3b9cb35f816da381c60fb0496ca5f3665304"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-ca"]
---

# California AB 637 (20152016) — Physician Orders for Life Sustaining Treatment forms.

Existing law defines a request regarding resuscitative measures to mean a written document, signed by an individual, as specified, and the physician, that directs a health care provider regarding resuscitative measures, and includes a Physician Orders for Life Sustaining Treatment form (POLST form) . Existing law requires a physician to treat a patient in accordance with the POLST form and specifies the criteria for creation of a POLST form, including that the form be completed by a health care provider based on patient preferences and medical indications, and signed by a physician and the patient or his or her legally recognized health care decisionmaker.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **02/24/15 - Introduced** (filed) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB637&version=20150AB63799INT)
2. **08/17/15 - Chaptered** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB637&version=20150AB63797CHP)
3. **AB637** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB637)
4. **07/08/15 - Enrolled** (enrolled) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB637&version=20150AB63798ENR)

## Votes

- 3rd Reading AB637 Campos By Monning — **37–2** (pass) · upper
- AB 637 CAMPOS Assembly Third Reading — **75–0** (pass) · lower
- Do pass. — **10–0** (pass) · lower
- Do pass — **8–0** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Campos — primary (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2015-02-24** Read first time. To print. `reading-1`
- **2015-02-25** From printer. May be heard in committee March 27.
- **2015-03-09** Referred to Com. on JUD. `referral-committee`
- **2015-04-07** From committee: Do pass. (Ayes 10. Noes 0.) (April 7). `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage`
- **2015-04-08** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2015-04-16** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Senate. (Ayes 75. Noes 0. Page 968.) `reading-3, passage, reading-1`
- **2015-04-16** In Senate. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. `reading-1`
- **2015-05-07** Referred to Com. on HEALTH. `referral-committee`
- **2015-06-11** From committee: Do pass. (Ayes 8. Noes 0.) (June 10). `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage`
- **2015-06-15** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2015-07-06** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Assembly. (Ayes 37. Noes 2. Page 1784.). `reading-3, passage, reading-1`
- **2015-07-06** In Assembly. Ordered to Engrossing and Enrolling. `committee-passage`
- **2015-08-03** Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 3 p.m.
- **2015-08-17** Approved by the Governor. `executive-signature`
- **2015-08-17** Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 217, Statutes of 2015.

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/dda0dc22-2e1e-425a-a295-f8209ef6ca73`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official California legislature records).