News Release: Columbus Community Hospital unveils advance health care directives toolkit

For Immediate Release
(COLUMBUS, Neb.) - When you’re planning for future health care decisions, you need to talk to your loved ones about values, priorities and the quality of life you want. To help you in this process, Columbus Community Hospital’s ethics committee created an advance health care directives tool kit.
 
“We decided in the ethics committee that it would be good to have just universal forms that we use throughout CCH and other medical facilities in the community,” said Lisa Weber, a social worker at CCH.
 
This toolkit does not replace an attorney’s services; rather, it is a way for people to start thinking about what they want.
 
During the process, each person needs to do the following:

• Decide who will speak for them if they can no longer make decisions themselves.
• Identify and clarify their values, priorities and goals about health and medical treatment.
• Gain clarity about the types of decisions that might need to be made, and identify the care they do and don’t want to receive in various situations.
• Let others know — both family and health care providers — about their care preferences at life’s end. 

• An informational guide detailing the benefits of advance directives and definitions.
• A Nebraska Power of Attorney form
• A Nebraska Living Will Declaration form
• A portable medical orders (POLST) form
  • This form is for patients who have a serious, life-limiting medical condition.

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