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What Are Advance Directives?
Advance Directives are legal documents, known as “Directive To Physicians” that allow you
to give direction to medical personnel, family, and friends concerning your future care when you cannot speak for yourself or are unable to make your own decisions. According to the Texas Advance Directives Act you have the legal right
to specify what treatments
your would or would not
want. This right includes treatment decisions involving the withholding/withdrawal
of life-sustaining procedures (including resuscitative measures) in the event of
a terminal or irreversible condition. You do not need a lawyer in order to complete advance directives. Your Advance Directives include:
LIVING WILL
A living will is a legal document that a person uses to make known his or her instructions regarding life prolonging medical treatments. is includes your wishes about CPR if your heart stops beating, a ventilator if you stop breathing or a feeding tube or IV if you cannot
eat or drink.
MEDICAL POWER OF ATTORNEY
e Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) gives you the right to have one or more persons act as your representative to make decisions about the uses and sharing of health information about you. You can limit the amount of information that
the authorized representative can decide about and you can cancel this at any time. e person you name as your decision- maker has the authority to make any and all healthcare decisions
for you in accordance with your wishes and your religious and moral beliefs. e legal document that must be
completed to appoint someone as your decision-maker for healthcare decisions is the “Medical Power of Attorney.”
If you are an outpatient, we advise you to discuss your advance directive preferences with your physician.
In the event of cardiopulmonary arrest, all outpatients will be resuscitated with two exceptions:
• Patients who present a valid, written and signed Out-of-Hospital Do Not Resuscitate Order
• Patients who are wearing an identi cation device approved by the State of Texas will not be resuscitated.
If you change your mind about the healthcare decisions in your advance directive, you can revise or revoke (cancel) it. Your advance directive is valid until you revise or revoke it. Be sure to notify your physician that you have done so.
Our objective is to support healthcare or treatment decisions made by the patient (or by an individual legally authorized to make such decisions on the patient’s behalf) in accordance with accepted medical, ethical and legal principles and the wishes of the patient, if known.
An advance directive is NOT used to determine a patient’s access to care, treatment,
or services.
ADVANCE DIRECTIVE FORMS
Advance directive forms are available
at CHI St. Luke’s Health– e Vintage Hospital Admitting Department, and from the Texas Department of Aging and Disability Service. (www.dads.state.tx.us/ news_info/publications/handbooks/index. html#handbooks)
Copies of completed advance directive forms should be given to your physicians, healthcare facilities, family and friends. Please review your advance directive documents regularly to ensure that these documents are current with your wishes.
• Honoring your healthcare decisions is important to us.
• Ensure your wishes are followed
by putting your Advance Directives in writing, and giving the document to your healthcare providers.
Questions About Advance Directives?
Call 832-534-5110 to discuss your Advance Directives. Be sure to have your Advocate with you when you call.
Get more information and Advance Directives forms when you visit CaringInfo.org
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ADVANCE DIRECTIVES