Physican Order for Life Sustaining Treatment

A relatively new estate planning technique is the Physician Order for Life Sustaining Treatments (POLST).  As described in Julie Appleby, Debate surrounds end-of-life expenses–Should treatment be provided, regardless of cost or quality of life?, USA Today, Oct. 19, 2006, at 1B, 2B:

On the forms, patients can say whether they want cardiopulmonary resuscitation, antibiotics or feeding tubes. Conversely, they can specify that they want full treatment, including breathing machines and feeding tubes. And for how long.

The forms differ from so-called advance directives, which are also called living wills, which name someone to speak on behalf of a patient and state patient wishes. Instead, the forms are doctor’s orders, similar to directions written into medical charts, that are recognized and followed by medical personnel from technicians on ambulances to staff at hospitals and nursing homes. * * *

The POLST forms in Oregon, which are printed on bright pink paper and can be transmitted electronically by hospitals and other medical providers, are “for the individual who is in life’s last chapter,” she says.

Oregon was the first state to authorize POLST documents.  According to Julie Appleby, Few states allow forms spelling out patients’ wishes, USA Today, Oct. 19, 2006, at 2B,

Washington state and West Virginia, along with parts of New York and Wisconsin, have similar programs. Advocates in a handful of other states, including Hawaii, Utah, Florida and Nevada, are developing them.