• Advance Directive Definitions
• Do You Need an Advance Directive?
• Protecting Yourself and Your Family
• Protective Medical Decisions Document
Also see:
Advance Care Planning and Health Care Reform (ObamaCare) and POLST
Articles:
“End-of-life care requires careful planning”
(Philadelphia Inquirer — July 1, 2019 )
“Each time I accompany my mother — now in her 80s — to the hospital, she’s asked the same question: Do you have a living will?”
…”Confronting this question over and over again, I explored our options. It was only recently that I got my answer– while watching television.”
“You may have signed a living will, but scary mistakes can happen at the ER”
(Washington Post — August 5, 2018)
Unfortunately, misunderstandings involving documents meant to guide end-of-life decision-making are “surprisingly common,” said [Dr. Monica] Williams-Murphy, medical director of advance-care planning and end-of-life care for Huntsville Health System in Alabama.
But health systems and state regulators don’t systematically track mix-ups…
“That ‘Living Will’ You Signed? At the ER, It Could Be Open to Interpretation”
(California Healthline — June 14, 2018)
DNR orders are often wrongly equated with “do not treat” at all.
More on DNRs
“Government would pay seniors to create advanced directives under Senate bill”
(McKnight’s — April 16, 2014)
Medicare beneficiaries would be paid to create advance directives and store them in an easy-access system if a recently proposed Senate bill were to become law….
It also calls for an accreditation process to be established for advance directive vendors participating in the program….
Text of S. 2240 (html)
Text of S. 2240 (pdf)
“A Novel Way to Document End-of-Life Preferences”
(New York Times — July 25, 2013)
Some California physicians took a new approach to what is called advance care planning. “They experimented with brib…er. incentivizing doctors.”
If residents recorded this information for at least 75 percent of discharged patients, for three of the four quarters in the academic year, they each got a $400 bonus. “We also don’t know whether simply having a standard form in your medical records means that you will actually have your wishes respected.”
“Back Off! I’m Not Dead Yet: I Don’t Want a Living Will.” (Washington Post, 10/14/07) Patients are pressured to sign Living Wills.
