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Instruction
on Current Life-Sustaining Treatment Options
Instructions
on Current Life-Sustaining Treatment Options (formerly Patient’s
Plan of Care) Form
The effective date for use of the Instructions
on Current Life-Sustaining Treatment Options (LST Options) form is April 1, 2008.
The
Life Sustaining Treatment options form has been released in Spanish
- A version
of the form in Spanish is available here.
Regulations concerning the form are available here.
Points to remember:
- Nursing
homes are to offer the form to new residents or their
proxies (health care agents and surrogates).
- If
a resident already has a Patient’s Plan of Care form,
there is no requirement to do a new LST Options form. A future
change
in preferences, however, should be documented on the LST
Options form.
- Other
health care facilities and providers may, but are not
required to, use the form as a tool for finding out patient
wishes.
A letter about the positive
effect of the form during a JCAHO survey is available
here.
- Those
using the form should be sure to copy it two-sided. As
the regulations say, the LST Options form is to be only one
sheet
of paper, to avoid the problem on pages accidently separated.
- Do
not alter the contents or format of the form, except
for spacing needs related to patient identification. Contact
Kathleen Todd at 410-767-1864 if you want a word processing
version of the form, so you can modify the form’s
spacing for this purpose. (But be aware that the original
word processor is WordPerfect, not Word; converting it
might foul up the formatting.)
Three Explanatory Guides about the LST Options form are available
for download:
Two advice
letters have also been issued about the Patient’s
Plan of Care form:
1. Letter to Herbert Hubbard (2005): Decisions
on Patient's Plan of Care form. The letter confirms that a surrogate's
decision-making authority about life-sustaining treatments has
not been expanded by the Patient's Plan of Care form.
2. Letter to Dr. Harold Bob (2005): Patient's
Plan of Care form and surrogate authority. The letter analyzes how the Act's requirement
on certification of condition affects a surrogate's completion
of the form and the entry of physician orders to implement surrogate
decisions about feeding tube use.
Click
here to download
a presentation that summarizes the objectives and contents
of the LST Options form.
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