Advance Directive

Your right to actively participate in decisions regarding your healthcare program, including decisions regarding the right to refuse life-sustaining treatment, is important to our hospital and medical staff.

Your doctors will tell you about treatments they recommend for your care. You have the right to decide which treatments you want and to say “no” to treatments you don’t want. You can even say “no” to treatment that might keep you alive longer. And you can specify in advance, through a written document called an Advance Directive, your wishes about end-of-life care in the event you are too ill or hurt to make those wishes known.

Now is the time to think about important issues regarding your future healthcare, while you are still able to make decisions and have time to talk about them with others. When you are admitted to our hospital, you will receive information about Advance Directives. If you have already completed this document, please make sure we have a copy on file so we can be sure to honor your wishes.

An Advance Directive is a form that makes your healthcare wishes known to your family and physicians if for whatever reason you become unable to state them yourself. This directive will allow you to appoint another person to be your healthcare agent. The agent you designate will be authorized to make decisions for your medical care if you become unable to.

Helpful resources

• Review the helpful information on Advance Directives called Put It In Writing provided by the American Hospital Association. Available in both English and Spanish.
• Visit Oregon Health Authority to view a user guide and either fill-in an online Advance Directive (PDF) or download a Word document to print. Available in multiple languages including English and Spanish.
• In addition, you can communicate your wishes regarding your care with POLST forms (Physicians Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment). You may obtain a form through your primary provider or from polst.org.