Your Medical Decisions
Your medical decisions are important to Good Samaritan Hospital (GSH). GSH offers you advance care planning tools to ensure your treatment preferences are respected.
Advance Directives
You are the person most qualified to make decisions about your medical care, including any decisions to choose or refuse medical treatment if you become terminally ill or permanently unconscious and unable to make your own health care decisions. If that happens, you can help ensure your preferences are respected by physicians, family, and friends by completing an advance directive(s). In Ohio, two types of advance directives are frequently utilized by individuals to ensure that they remain in control of their health care:
Document and Record Your Treatment Preferences
“Advance directive” is a legal term that refers to a person's instructions for how his or her future medical care decisions should be made when he or she is not able to make those decisions for himself or herself. An advance directive is a written legal document.
For example, if a patient becomes terminally ill and is no longer able to express himself or herself, an advance directive can express the patient’s wishes or designate a proxy to inform the health care team about the patient's wishes regarding the continued use or withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment.
Communicate Your Wishes for Life-Sustaining Treatment
Advance directives allow you to communicate your end-of-life care wishes not only to doctors, but also to family and friends. These documents can help family members feel more confident that they know what their loved one would or would not want when difficult medical care decisions regarding life-sustaining treatment have to be made.
Who Needs an Advance Directive?
Some people wait until they are seriously or terminally ill to prepare an advance directive. However, anyone may be the victim of unexpected illness, accident, or serious injury. It is best to complete advance directives when you feel well and have had the opportunity to discuss your wishes with your loved ones and doctors.
Types of Advance Directives
Ohio Living Will
An Ohio Living Will is a legal document that specifies the medical care or life-sustaining treatment you do or do not want to receive if you become terminally ill or permanently unconscious and are unable to speak for yourself.
Back to top
Ohio Health Care Power of Attorney
An Ohio Health Care Power of Attorney is a legal document in which you designate another person to make your health care decisions in the event you are unable to do so for yourself. A Health Care Power of Attorney takes effect when you are unconscious, incapacitated, or otherwise unable to make medical decisions, even temporarily.
Back to top
Obtaining Forms
A packet entitled “Choices: Living Well at the End of Life,” which includes Ohio’s Living Will and Health Care Power of Attorney forms and additional information about advance directives, may be downloaded for free on the Ohio Hospice and Palliative Care Organization
website .
After Completing an Advance Directive
If you decide to complete an advance directive, we encourage you to give copies to your physician and loved ones. Keep the original copy in a safe place where you keep your other important papers. Furthermore, if you are to be admitted to GSH, please bring a copy(ies) of your advance directive(s) with you so it can be included in your medical record.
Contact Us
If you have questions or concerns about advance directives, our Customer Service staff is available to assist you. Call (937) 734-1000, for assistance. Or download a booklet from GSH that will provide you with additional information about advance directives and end-of-life issues.
DISCLAIMER: Good Samaritan Hospital does not have any control over the content of third-party websites and neither endorses nor accepts any responsibility for the content, products, and services on or sold on these websites. The symbol indicates a third-party website.