Hi, my name is Kat Sigafoose. I’m the Director of Patient Access at Tahoe Forest Health System, and I’m here today to talk to you about advance directives. Tahoe Forest Health System encourages patients to be an active participant in decisions about their medical care. We provide adult patients information in regards to their right to formulate an advance directive concerning their healthcare decisions.
You do have the right to formulate an advance directive, declaration, or a durable power of attorney. You do not have to wait until you’re sick to formulate an advance directive, and really we do want you to formulate an advance directive prior to you getting sick, having a hospital admission, or having to go to a nursing home. You can use an advance healthcare directive to say who you want to speak for you or what kind of treatment you want done.
The document is referred to as advance because you should be putting this in place prior to when healthcare decisions have to be made, and directives because you’re stating who you want to speak for you and what you want done. You can make an advance directive so long as you are 18 years or older. I would recommend this to my friends and my siblings as well as my parents. This really does help with the burden that may be put on your loved ones.
You can obtain your advance directive forms from your local state website as well as the Registration Department at Tahoe Forest Health System. Information in regards to an advance directive will be provided to you within 24 hours of admission to one of our hospitals. Upon admission you will also be asked if you have an advance directive, and this will be documented in your medical record. If you do have an advance directive, it’s really important that you furnish this to our medical records department so we can have that on file for you in the event that clinical staff needs to refer to your advance directive.
If you have any further questions in regards to advance directives, contact Tahoe Forest’s social services at <a href="tel:+15305823268">(530) 582-3268.
