How to Get and Complete the Ohio Do-Not-Resuscitate (DNR) Form

The Ohio DNR form, officially called the DNR Comfort Care form, is available for free from the Ohio Department of Health and must be signed by a physician, advanced practice registered nurse (APRN), or physician assistant (PA) to be valid. You cannot draft your own version. Only orders recorded on the state’s standardized form count as legal DNR identification under Ohio law.¹

Where to Get the Form

Download the official form from the Ohio Department of Health at odh.ohio.gov, or request a copy through your doctor’s office, hospital, or hospice program.² A note in your chart, a letter to family, or a handwritten instruction will not do the job. EMS providers are not obligated to follow informal directions about resuscitation, and in an emergency they will default to full CPR without the state-approved document or identifier in front of them.

Choose Your Protocol Before You Sign

The form asks you to check one of two boxes, and the two options produce very different outcomes.² Talk this choice through with your doctor before signing.

DNR Comfort Care

This protocol starts the moment the order is signed.³ From that point forward, providers give only comfort measures: oxygen or breathing support if it helps you breathe easier, IV fluids or pain medication for comfort, but no chest compressions, defibrillation, or intubation. People in the final stages of a terminal illness often pick this option when they want to avoid aggressive intervention entirely.

DNR Comfort Care — Arrest

This option leaves full treatment on the table until your heart stops or you stop breathing. Up to that point, providers treat you like any other patient, including emergency procedures and medications. Once arrest happens, resuscitation stops and comfort care takes over.³ This suits someone who wants active treatment for current conditions but does not want to be revived if their heart or breathing fails.

Filling Out the Form

The form is short, but every required field has to be complete. A partially filled form can be treated as invalid in the moment it matters most. The following goes on the document:

Your full legal name, written clearly enough for a responder who has never met you to match it to you.
Your birth date. This field is optional, but include it for identification.
One checked protocol box. Only one.
The printed name and signature of the physician, APRN, or PA issuing the order, plus the date.
A phone number, required when an APRN or PA signs.
If a PA signs, the supervising physician’s name and either their NPI, DEA number, or Ohio medical license number. If an APRN signs, the collaborating physician’s information fills that line.
Your signature, or the signature of your authorized representative, on the line provided.

Do not add anything else to the form. Extra medical orders, instructions, or notes written onto the document are not legally transportable and get no legal protection.⁴ Separate care instructions belong in an advance directive or a different medical order.

Make Sure Responders Can Find It

A signed form that EMS cannot locate in the first minute of a call does nothing for you. Keep the original or a legible copy somewhere responders are trained to look: taped to the front of the refrigerator or posted near the head of your bed. Many Ohio EMS crews check the refrigerator first, since it has become the informal standard location for advance directives in the home.

If you split time between homes, a care facility, or a vacation property, keep copies at each. The form may be reproduced as needed.¹

For situations away from the paperwork, Ohio approves several portable identifiers:¹

A wallet card bearing the state-approved logo and your identifying information.
A necklace displaying the approved logo and your name. If you chose the DNR Comfort Care — Arrest protocol, the necklace must also carry the word “arrest.”
A bracelet with the same requirements as the necklace.
A transparent hospital-type bracelet with an insert showing the logo and your information, typically used in facility settings.

Ask your physician’s office or hospice provider how to order these. If you selected the Arrest version, make sure your jewelry says so. Wearing the wrong one sends the wrong instruction. Without any visible proof, responders are required to perform full CPR.

Changing Your Mind

You can revoke the order at any time, including during an emergency. Ohio law recognizes several ways to cancel DNR status:⁵

Tell a responder or provider, out loud or in writing, that you want CPR. Verbal revocation is enough; writing it down afterward prevents confusion.
Physically destroy all copies of the form and any wallet cards.
Permanently remove a DNR necklace or bracelet.
Ask your physician, APRN, or PA to issue a new order that discontinues the DNR.

After revoking, tell your healthcare team so your records reflect the change, and tell family and caregivers so no one hands responders an outdated copy or points to an identifier you forgot to destroy.

How the DNR Form Fits With a Living Will or Healthcare Power of Attorney

The DNR form covers one specific instruction: do not perform CPR. It is not a living will and not a healthcare power of attorney, though it can sit alongside both.

A living will covers a broader set of end-of-life decisions, including nutrition, hydration, and other life-sustaining treatments. Ohio law allows a living will that refuses CPR to serve as the basis for DNR identification once the living will becomes operative, which happens after two physicians confirm you are terminally ill or permanently unconscious.³ The DNR form takes effect as soon as it is signed and does not require any particular diagnosis. If both documents exist and overlap, the DNR form gives EMS something they can read and act on immediately, without interpreting the broader language of a living will in a crisis.

A healthcare power of attorney does not override a living will in Ohio. If your living will refuses CPR, your healthcare agent cannot reverse that. The agent can, however, authorize a physician to issue a DNR order on your behalf if you are unable to communicate and have not already executed one yourself.

1
Ohio Legislative Service Commission. Ohio Administrative Code Rule 3701-62-04 – Do-Not-Resuscitate Identification
2
Ohio Department of Health. DNR Comfort Care Form
3
Ohio Legislative Service Commission. Ohio Administrative Code Rule 3701-62-05 – Do-Not-Resuscitate Protocol
4
Legal Information Institute. Ohio Admin Code 3701-62-04 – Do-Not-Resuscitate Identification
5
Ohio Legislative Service Commission. Ohio Administrative Code Rule 3701-62-06 – Revocation of DNR Identification or DNR Order