Optimizing Advance Healthcare Directives to Ensure Patient Safety During a Pandemic

This program will help attorneys understand best practices for advanced healthcare directives and living wills during a pandemic. Attorneys will learn: (1) how to identify common issues when creating advance directives, (2) the risk of wrongful prolongation of life claims, (3) when to advise clients and families to discuss their options with medical teams, and (4) proper use of Provider Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment (POLST) forms. The course will also discuss the future of videoconference options for completing advance directives when clients cannot be in the room. The program is taught by Thaddeus Mason Pope, Director of the Health Law Institute and Professor of Law at Mitchell Hamline School of Law in Saint Paul, Minnesota, and Ferdinando L. Mirarchi, Chief Medical Officer of the Institute on HealthCare Directives and the Medical Director of the UPMC Hamot Emergency Department in Erie, Pennsylvania 

This course will benefit lawyers who practice Estate Planning and Elder Law.

Learning Objectives:

1. Identify the risks associated with advance directives and living wills as evidenced in the TRIAD Research Series
2. Discuss the development of wrongful prolongation of life litigation
3. Advise patients when to seek medical discussions for understanding of choices
4. Teach clients how to navigate questions pertaining to living wills and cardiac arrest
5. Utilize POLST forms appropriately
6. Prepare for the addition of video (scripted or unscripted) to accompany written advance directives (living wills)
7. Use MIDEO (My Informed Decision on Video) in Legal and Medical practice