We all know the importance of advance directives in making clients’ healthcare wishes known. Unfortunately, research tells us that creating such documents does not necessarily ensure that their wishes will be known when it counts.
Consider this: According to a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association, advance directives were not available in three out of four cases when a patient was admitted to the hospital.
Or this: In 67 to 74 percent of cases, physicians were not aware that their patients even had advance directives.
What explains the unavailability of these documents and the lack of knowledge about their existence by the medical professionals who need them? For one thing, people tend to file away their directives, store them in a safe deposit box, give them to family members, or even leave them in the estate plan binder I may have given. And why wouldn’t you? Who goes out in the morning thinking “What if I get into an accident or suffer a stroke today… better bring my advance directives with me just in case.” Thus, the documents are not readily available in emergencies, the very situations in which they may be most needed.
To address this problem, a number of electronic registries now provide instant access to advance directives. Utilizing the vast capacity offered by electronic storage and high-speed data transmission, these services permit advance directives to be obtained from just about anywhere, so that these documents can do their intended job at a moment’s notice.
Registries can also help protect clients’ advance directives from being unwittingly superseded — another benefit not widely recognized. Here’s how: if a patient does not have his or her advance directive in hand when hospitalized, the hospital typically offers the patient the opportunity to complete a new directive, right there on the spot during the admissions process. This directive is typically the state’s statutory form. Patients often comply with the hospital’s offer (which is sometimes heard as a request) to complete a new directive -because they want to be cooperative. But, any new directive the client executes will negate the previous directive that you created. Any non-statutory language that may have been carefully drafted to further clarify and protect the client’s wishes will be undone.
So how do registries work, and what should you look for? More on this is forthcoming.
Bob