---
type: "Bill"
title: "Physician Orders for Life Sustaining Treatment form: electronic registry pilot."
description: "Existing law defines a request regarding resuscitative measures as a written document, signed by an individual with capacity, or a legally recognized health care decisionmaker, and the individual's physician, directing a health care provider regarding resuscitative measures. Existing law defines a Physician Orders for Life Sustaining Treatment form, which is commonly referred to as a POLST form, and provides that a request regarding resuscitative measures includes a POLST form. Existing law requires that a POLST form and the medical intervention and procedures offered by the form be explained by a health care provider. Existing law distinguishes a request regarding resuscitative measures from an advance health care directive."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ca"
legislature: "California Legislature"
session: "20152016"
identifier: "SB 19"
citation: "California SB 19 (20152016)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Physician Orders for Life Sustaining Treatment form: electronic registry pilot."]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Wolk"]
version_count: 10
action_count: 35
vote_count: 11
first_action: "2014-12-01"
last_action: "2015-10-05"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/d1dae52d-cb6d-43df-b67d-d1c7ff1bb602"
source_url: "http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201520160SB19"
source_hash: "446dc7de52036dfa7b8a478de940adfa191aa986ee4a80f545ad58e736e2d93d"
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 SB 19 (20152016) — Physician Orders for Life Sustaining Treatment form: electronic registry pilot.

Existing law defines a request regarding resuscitative measures as a written document, signed by an individual with capacity, or a legally recognized health care decisionmaker, and the individual's physician, directing a health care provider regarding resuscitative measures. Existing law defines a Physician Orders for Life Sustaining Treatment form, which is commonly referred to as a POLST form, and provides that a request regarding resuscitative measures includes a POLST form. Existing law requires that a POLST form and the medical intervention and procedures offered by the form be explained by a health care provider. Existing law distinguishes a request regarding resuscitative measures from an advance health care directive.

## Version chain

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

1. **12/01/14 - Introduced** (filed) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201520160SB19&version=20150SB1999INT)
2. **03/25/15 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201520160SB19&version=20150SB1998AMD)
3. **05/05/15 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201520160SB19&version=20150SB1997AMD)
4. **06/02/15 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201520160SB19&version=20150SB1996AMD)
5. **07/16/15 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201520160SB19&version=20150SB1995AMD)
6. **08/31/15 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201520160SB19&version=20150SB1994AMD)
7. **09/04/15 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201520160SB19&version=20150SB1993AMD)
8. **10/05/15 - Chaptered** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201520160SB19&version=20150SB1991CHP)
9. **SB19** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201520160SB19)
10. **09/10/15 - Enrolled** (enrolled) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201520160SB19&version=20150SB1992ENR)

## Votes

- Do pass as amended and be re-referred to the Committee on [Appropriations] — **10–0** (pass) · lower
- SB 19 Wolk Senate Third Reading By DABABNEH — **67–10** (pass) · lower
- Do pass and be re-referred to the Committee on [Judiciary] — **19–0** (pass) · lower
- Unfinished Business SB19 Wolk Concurrence — **39–0** (pass) · upper
- Do pass, but first be re-referred to the Committee on [Judiciary] — **9–0** (pass) · upper
- Do pass as amended. — **17–0** (pass) · lower
- 3rd Reading — **40–0** (pass) · upper
- SB 19 Wolk Senate Third Reading By DABABNEH — **64–11** (pass) · lower
- Placed on suspense file — **7–0** (pass) · upper
- Do pass as amended, but first amend, and re-refer to the Committee on [Appropriations] — **6–0** (pass) · upper
- Do pass as amended — **7–0** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Wolk — primary (person)
- Bonilla — coauthor (person)
- Dababneh — coauthor (person)
- Eggman — coauthor (person)
- Hancock — coauthor (person)
- Monning — coauthor (person)
- Vidak — coauthor (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2014-12-01** Introduced. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. To print. `introduction, reading-1`
- **2014-12-02** From printer. May be acted upon on or after January 1.
- **2015-01-15** Referred to Coms. on HEALTH and JUD. `referral-committee`
- **2015-03-10** Set for hearing April 8.
- **2015-03-25** From committee with author's amendments. Read second time and amended. Re-referred to Com. on HEALTH. `referral-committee, reading-2, amendment-passage, committee-passage, reading-1`
- **2015-04-09** From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on JUD. (Ayes 9. Noes 0. Page 544.) (April 8). Re-referred to Com. on JUD. `referral-committee, committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage`
- **2015-04-21** Set for hearing April 28.
- **2015-05-04** From committee: Do pass as amended and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 6. Noes 0. Page 817.) (April 28). `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage, amendment-passage`
- **2015-05-05** Read second time and amended. Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `referral-committee, reading-2, amendment-passage, reading-1`
- **2015-05-08** Set for hearing May 18.
- **2015-05-18** May 18 hearing: Placed on APPR. suspense file.
- **2015-05-23** Set for hearing May 28.
- **2015-06-01** From committee: Do pass as amended. (Ayes 7. Noes 0. Page 1145.) (May 28). `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage, amendment-passage`
- **2015-06-02** Read second time and amended. Ordered to third reading. `amendment-passage, reading-2, reading-1`
- **2015-06-03** Read third time. Passed. (Ayes 40. Noes 0. Page 1299.) Ordered to the Assembly. `reading-3, passage, reading-1`
- **2015-06-04** In Assembly. Read first time. Held at Desk. `reading-1`
- **2015-06-15** Referred to Coms. on HEALTH and JUD. `referral-committee`
- **2015-07-08** From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on JUD. (Ayes 19. Noes 0.) (July 7). Re-referred to Com. on JUD. `referral-committee, committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage`
- **2015-07-15** From committee: Do pass as amended and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 10. Noes 0.) (July 14). `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage, amendment-passage`
- **2015-07-16** Read second time and amended. Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `referral-committee, reading-2, amendment-passage, reading-1`
- **2015-08-19** August 19 set for first hearing. Placed on APPR. suspense file.
- **2015-08-31** From committee: Do pass as amended. (Ayes 17. Noes 0.) (August 27). `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage, amendment-passage`
- **2015-08-31** Read second time and amended. Ordered to second reading. `amendment-passage, reading-2, reading-1`
- **2015-09-01** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2015-09-02** Read third time. Passed. (Ayes 67. Noes 10. Page 2791.) Ordered to the Senate. `reading-3, passage, reading-1`
- **2015-09-03** Action rescinded whereby the bill was read a third time, passed, and ordered to the Senate.
- **2015-09-03** Ordered to third reading.
- **2015-09-04** Read third time and amended. `reading-3, amendment-passage, reading-1`
- **2015-09-04** Ordered to third reading.
- **2015-09-08** Read third time. Passed. (Ayes 64. Noes 11. Page 2968.) Ordered to the Senate. `reading-3, passage, reading-1`
- **2015-09-08** In Senate. Concurrence in Assembly amendments pending.
- **2015-09-10** Assembly amendments concurred in. (Ayes 39. Noes 0. Page 2671.) Ordered to engrossing and enrolling. `committee-passage-favorable, amendment-passage`
- **2015-09-11** Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 10:45 p.m.
- **2015-10-05** Approved by the Governor. `executive-signature`
- **2015-10-05** Chaptered by Secretary of State. Chapter 504, Statutes of 2015.

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/d1dae52d-cb6d-43df-b67d-d1c7ff1bb602`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official California legislature records).