Advanced Care Planning is the cornerstone of Vital Comm Lines, Inc. There is now an entire week devoted to encouraging people plan for “tomorrow” and
“Take Charge of Your Care”…our company tagline)
We are a non-profit organization with the following mission:
To support the right of each individual to have their decisions regarding quality of life and end of life honored by health professionals and significant others.
Below is an excerpt from Nathan Kottkamp, the founder of National Healthcare Decision Day (on April 16th)
I serve on several hospital ethics committees as part of my health law practice, and I am repeatedly confronted with a very disturbing issue. Time and time again, families, providers, and hospital administrators struggle to interpret the wishes of patients who never made their healthcare wishes known (or failed to complete an advance directive to record their stated wishes). These families and professionals do their best to advocate for what they believe their loved ones or the patient would want or is in their best interests, but they are inherently doing so without any guidance, and it is agonizing. I founded National Healthcare Decisions Day (April 16) because I know that we—both potential patients and healthcare providers—can do a much better job of making our wishes known and then honoring those wishes to avoid these very sad situations.
Related resources: https://www.ourcarewishes.org/
National Healthcare Decision Week
Overall theme:
“It always seems too early, until it’s too late”
Daily themes:
Sunday, April 11th
PREPARE (Get resources together)
Monday, April 12th
START WITH YOURSELF (think about your own decisions)
Tuesday, April 13th
FAMILY/FRIENDS/LOVED ONES (discuss with others)
Wednesday, April 14th
SPREAD THE WORD (tell others and encourage them too)
Thursday, April 15th
FACILITIES FOCUS (healthcare providers promote)
Friday, April 16th
PROFESSIONALS PREPAREDNESS ( all understand/promote)
Saturday, April 17th
REFLECTION AND READINESS (evaluate and make available)