Tools for Communicating Your Health Care Wishes [Video]

Transcript

Advance care planning is important because it gives patients and families an opportunity talk about an emergency before an emergency happens.

It’s a lot easier to make health care decisions at a quiet time around the kitchen table rather than when the ambulance crew is in the living room.

An advance directive is a document that offers guidelines regarding a patient’s health care wishes.

For example, who the decision maker should be, if the patient is not able to make his or her own health care decisions.

Also, what health care treatments a patient may or may not want.

An advance directive is a modern version of a living will that is a little bit more general.

For example, it identifies a health care decision maker for the person and offers a few guidelines, but is not detailed in the way a living will may be a detailed legal document.

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