Physician Ordered Life Sustaining Treatment (POLST)

This legal-medical document  allows  patients and their physicians to enunciate in concise terms their understanding and selection of certain options regarding end of life treatments.

One object of the POLST form is to eliminate ambiguity as to medical, legal and ethical terms. Another is to make terminology uniform across state lines. California has adopted POLST and so have additional states (CA, HI, ID, MD, NY, NC, OR, TN, UT, WA, WV) Other states are also studying this model.

Ideally the physician will lead a discussion regarding the form and the patient's  options and the doctor and patient memorialize the patient's wishes on a bright pink form which the Doctor then includes with the patient's medical file or chart.

While this document and the model are excellent I have added the POLST to my document package, not removed any of the other documents. Care must be exercised by the scribe to fill out the documents in such a manner that there exist no conflicts.

However, I still believe the Health Care Power of Attorney, HIPAA Declaration and Living will continue to serve their purposes.

Hand drafting a clients end of life desires can be rewarding for the maker and comforting to those who will be charged with carrying 0ut the maker's desire.

However, I favor of the use of the POLST document as it further reduces the probability that unauthorized health interventions will be imposed nor authorized interventions withheld from initial  onset of incapacity through to death the maker of the POLST.

However, I am still preparing a Living Will, a Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care and a HIPAA Declaration for all of my clients, to go along with the POLST.

Preparing all four documents correctly and without conflicting directions, provides a belt and suspenders approach to having end of life medical treatment be what the maker of the documents - the patient -  wants done.

I sympathize with distraught family members who would like their loved ones treated the way the family member believes is best, but I am more sympathetic to the person facing death who has made his or her wishes known.

Keep in mind a POLST provides for all levels of treatment from maximum life sustaining treatments, even those which will merely prolong dying, to minimum treatment for comfort and provision of pain relief even if that provision of medication shortens  the maker's life.

I advocate letting family members, important friends and partners in business know your wishes so that at the difficult time when these documents are needed and are used members of your close community do not suffer shock and emotional distress by the maker's desires. Be careful as can be when completing these documents and if you do not understand, have a doctor oran attorney explain it to you.