Advance Directives Beneficial
St. Joseph's Hospital in Breese encourages everyone to complete an Advance Directive.
Having the appropriate documents in place can be beneficial. “Fewer families and healthcare providers will have to struggle with making difficult healthcare decisions in the absence of guidance from the patient,” said Nathan A. Kottkamp, National Healthcare Decision Day initiatives chairman. “Healthcare providers and facilities will be better equipped to address advance healthcare planning issues before a crisis and be better able to honor patient wishes when the time comes.”
At St. Joseph's in Breese, forms are available from the hospital Switchboard and, in English and Spanish, on the Illinois Department of Public Health website, www.idph.state.il.us. Anyone interested in completing an Advance Directive may contact Pastoral Care at 526-5327 or Sr. Dorothy Niemann for assistance.
An advance directive is a two-part document describing a Durable Power of Attorney for Healthcare Decisions—also known as a Health Care Power of Attorney—and/or a Living Will. One or both parts should be completed.
A Durable Power of Attorney for Healthcare Decisions allows a patient—while still competent—to name a relative or friend that s/he knows and trusts as an agent to make healthcare decisions. A Living Will allows a patient to write down in advance his or her wishes regarding treatment wanted or not wanted.
The documents are intended to ensure that the patient's wishes are known and followed, take effect only when the patient can no longer make or communicate decisions and remain in effect until death. In a Durable Power of Attorney for Healthcare Decisions, the patient may choose to make their agent's authority effective immediately.
An advance directive's greatest benefit is its power to communicate a patient's wishes. Patients should discuss his or her advance directive with loved ones and healthcare providers prior to any emergency and completed copies should be provided to healthcare providers, family, friends, clergy, attorney and any others the patient trusts to carry out his or her wishes as part of advance care planning.
A completed copy may be included in a patient's permanent medical record and should be brought along when entering a hospital or going on a trip. Both documents can be changed or revoked at any time.
A Durable Power of Attorney for Healthcare Decisions is different from most powers of attorney which address business and financial matters. Some people choose separate agents for business and healthcare decisions; separate documents are required for each.
An attorney is not required to draft or sign a Living Will or Durable Power of Attorney for Healthcare Decisions but both documents need to be:
• Witnessed by someone at least 18 years old and over; and
• Notarized.
Healthcare providers have a responsibility to respect a patient's advance directive but those directives are not always honored by remaining family members. Directives are more likely to be honored if an agent has been named to act on the patient's behalf. If the directives are not being honored, the agent may turn to an ethics committee, social worker or chaplain for assistance.
For more information, visit www.nationalhealthcaredecisionsday.org or contact Pastoral Care at 526-5327 or Sr. Dorothy Niemann.
