Hospitals are heavily regulated at the state and federal levels. Applicable laws and regulations involve many issues, such as patient confidentiality, patient rights, risk management, medical malpractice suits, peer review activities, withdrawal of life support, advance health care directives (commonly referred to as "living wills"), medical guardianships, institutional review boards, hospital staff privileges, contract and corporate law as applied to the health care industry, AIDS-testing issues, Certificates of Need, and a myriad of other federal and State statutory and regulatory issues.
