Abstract

A wide variety of model forms are available for living wills and health care powers of attorney, the major types of advance directives. In our state of North Carolina, for example, advance directives statutes include model forms for both types of advance directives, and many health care facilities rely on these statutory forms. Some facilities, however, make use of forms that they themselves have developed, and others have adopted widely distributed national advance directive forms like Five Wishes. Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center (WFBMC), a large academic medical center in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, has for years relied on the NC statutory advance directive forms, despite the fact that these forms are rather lengthy, complex, and therefore difficult to complete. As part of an initiative to enhance advance care planning services for both inpatients and outpatients, the presenters are engaged in an effort to evaluate different advance directive forms and choose or develop a new form for use in our institution and throughout the community. In this workshop, we will propose criteria for choosing advance directive forms, invite participants to evaluate and rank these criteria, apply these criteria to assess several different types of forms, and report on the status of our effort to choose and implement new advance directive forms in our institution and community.