Advance Care Planning

Advance care planning is a process that allows you to let others know about your wishes for healthcare. Some advance care planning terms you may hear include “advance directive,” “living will” and/or “healthcare power of attorney.”

This process gives important information to your healthcare team and loved ones if you are unable to speak for yourself due to injury, illness or disease. If you’re over 18 years old, plan ahead and create an advance directive — even if you are healthy.

Planning your care

Taking these steps will help you plan your care effectively:

Create your advance directive

An advance directive is a written legal document that explains your wishes and/or who you would like to make healthcare decisions for you if you cannot make decisions for yourself. In Pennsylvania, an advance directive can be a living will, a healthcare power of attorney (see below) or a combination of both.

Main Line Health recommends PREPARE™ for your care, a nationally recognized advance care planning tool. PREPARE offers free education and guidance for creating an advance directive. Visit PREPARE™ for your care to fill out an advance directive on that website or download and print a blank form to complete by hand.

Name your healthcare decision maker

This is an important choice. The person you choose will need to make difficult medical decisions for you if you cannot understand your condition or speak for yourself. This person is sometimes called a “healthcare power of attorney,” “healthcare agent” or “proxy.”

Usually, it is someone close to you. It could be your spouse or partner, sibling, close friend, clergy or another trusted person. This person should be someone you trust to follow your wishes and is comfortable speaking up about your wishes to your healthcare team. Once you pick a healthcare decision maker, talk with them to make sure they are willing to accept the responsibility.

The PREPARE tool includes a section to name a healthcare power of attorney. If you aren’t ready to create an advance directive using PREPARE, you can fill out the one page form below.

Main Line Health durable healthcare power of attorney (PDF)

Decide whether you need other emergency care documents

Some people with ongoing medical problems may wish to provide instructions about which emergency care they would or would not want. Depending on your situation, you may wish to complete one or both of these forms.

  • Out of Hospital DNR (Do Not Resuscitate) form: This is an order provided to you by your doctor. It directs emergency medical services (EMS) providers not to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) in the event that you have a respiratory or cardiac arrest outside of a hospital.
  • POLST (Pennsylvania Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment): This is a set of medical orders that communicates what kind of treatment you want to receive towards the end of life.

These forms are optional. They do not replace your advance directive. Everyone needs an advance directive, but only some people need these emergency documents. Talk with your healthcare team if you think you may need one of these documents.

Make sure your documents can be found when needed

  • Take time now to make sure your loved ones know your wishes. Give them copies of your documents or make sure they know where to find them.
  • Give a copy of all your documents to your primary care provider.
  • Login and upload your documents to MyChart. If you need assistance, please call our 24/7/365 portal help desk at 484.580.1080 or send a message securely using our support form.
  • If you do not have a MyChart account for Main Line Health, you can send your documents to our medical records department by email.
    • Email MLHePatientinfo@mlhs.org.
    • Write your last name and “Advance Care Plan” in the subject line.
    • Include your full name, date of birth and phone number in the body of the email.
    • Attach your document(s).
  • Place all documents in a protective plastic sleeve.
  • Put the documents where they’ll be easy to find quickly.
  • If you have a POLST or Out-of-Hospital DNR, keep these on your refrigerator. This is where the emergency medical services team usually looks for them.
  • Bring copies of all documents to each hospitalization and whenever you’re seeing new medical providers.
  • If you change your documents, give the new versions to your healthcare power of attorney and your medical care team.

If you have additional questions, talk with your healthcare provider.