Advanced Directives

The law recognizes as valid “living wills” and advance medical directives allowing you to decide under certain circumstances, in advance, that in the event of an unexpected medical crisis such as cardiac or respiratory arrest, no attempt should be made to resuscitate you, and all life sustaining procedures should be withheld from you. Also, in the event that you are incapacitated and unable to make such a decision on your own behalf, medical decisions, including the decision to withhold or withdraw life support, may, under the same circumstances, be made for you by a “health care agent” previously designated by you, or by a “surrogate” decision maker, such as your adult child, parent or spouse.

Because of the nature of this Facility, and recognizing that surgical services provided in this Facility are elective, this Facility is unable to honor “do not resuscitate” orders and similar advance medical directives. In the event of a sudden life-threatening medical emergency, we will not comply with the instruction of a patient, a health care agent or surrogate medical decision maker to withhold, withdraw or cease to implement life sustaining procedures.

If you are the subject of a “do not resuscitate” order, or have a living will or advance medical directive which provides for the withholding or withdrawal of emergency life-sustaining procedures in the event you are incapacitated so as to be unable to make health care decisions on your own behalf, or if you have appointed a health care agent, or if medical decisions are being made on your behalf by a surrogate decision maker, in the event that a life-threatening medical emergency requiring the employment of life-sustaining procedures to preserve your life occurs while you are a patient in the Facility, we will do the following:

• Immediately begin the administration of medically appropriate life-sustaining procedures.
• Inform you, your health care agent or surrogate decision maker, if applicable, that we cannot comply with a request to withhold or withdraw life support; and that you, he or she may request a transfer to a nearby hospital or other appropriate facility that can and will comply with the request.
• Make every effort to transfer you to such hospital or other facility, and assist in the transfer.
• Pending the transfer, we will comply with any requests for medical care that would not likely result in your death. Please read carefully!