Making Health Care Decisions

Most of the time, people are able to make their own decisions, including agreeing to or refusing health care treatment. People have the legal right to make their own decisions.

But sometimes, people are not able to make their own decisions. For example, if someone has a brain injury or other cognitive impairment, he/she may not be able to make decisions.

If someone is not able to make decisions for him/herself, there are a few other options that can help the care team know what he/she would want:

• People who are able to make their own health care decisions can fill out an “Advance Directive for Health and Personal Care” (advance directives). These documents describe the medical treatment you do or do not want if you can’t communicate your wishes.

• A Substitute Decision Maker is someone who can make health care decisions for a patient who has been found to not be capable of making a particular decision.  A substitute decision-maker will likely have something called a “Continuing Power of Attorney for Personal Care or Finance” (Power of Attorney) that will legally give them the right to make decisions for the incapable patient.

We will respect all valid advance directives. Please give copies of any advance directives or Power of Attorney documents to your doctors, your care team and your family.

If no advance directive is available, we will provide treatment based on what the substitute decision-maker thinks the patient would have wanted.

If you would like more information about substitute decision-makers or advance care directives, please ask your care team.

If you or your family need help making difficult decisions, chaplains, ethicists and others are available to help. More information about these resources is available in Section 7 - Your safety in your admissions binder. Your care team can help you access these resources.