…care providers to make a similar mistake. This is not consistent with the POLST Paradigm professional guidance (see http://polst.org/professionals-page/?pro=1). The third bullet, “Might die within the next year”, is obviously meant to refer to the idea that the person’s physician would not be surprised if they died of their health condition within a year. It should say that. As currently worded, it could refer to everyone, since anyone could die…
…Life-Sustaining Treatment (POLST). In addition to addressing that problem, POLST must include key patient protections, such as: POLST is only for persons at the end stage of a serious illness; POLST advisory groups must include disability advocates; POLST forms should not be completed by a court-appointed surrogate, without first consulting with the patient; POLST discussion must present choices without steering patients toward particular…
…Life-Sustaining Treatment (POLST). In addition to addressing that problem, POLST must include key patient protections, such as: POLST is only for persons at the end stage of a serious illness; POLST advisory groups must include disability advocates; Signature of patient or surrogate must be required; POLST discussion must present choices without steering patients toward particular options, disclosing both the benefits and risks of entering an imme…
…and take a second look at Physicians Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment (POLST). Regarding physician assisted suicide, people already have access to advance directives, the right to refuse treatment or have it withdrawn, and quality palliative care. Some patients may still choose to end their lives by their own hand, but let’s not have doctors endorsing the practice or participating in it. POLST attempts to solve the problem of overtreatment, bu…
…tential avenues for addressing these violations. I showed a video of a bad POLST conversation between a doctor and patient. The DRLIB audience readily discerned the doctor’s bias against life-sustaining treatment, but sadly he’s getting an award from the California POLST group for the quality of his work. But my favorite part was passing on a community organizing idea from ADAPT’s Bob Kafka: We should all try to get people with disabilities from o…
