Advance healthcare directives enable you to make and control your own healthcare decisions in the future. You’re encouraged to talk with your family and your physician about these important issues, even if you’re not ill right now.
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Types of powers of attorney
In Arizona, there are four common types of powers of attorney, or POAs:
In a healthcare or medical power of attorney, you name an adult to make your healthcare decisions. This person will legally be able to make healthcare decisions for you, but only when you cannot make or communicate those decisions yourself.
In a mental healthcare power of attorney, you name an adult to make mental healthcare decisions on your behalf. This person will make your mental healthcare decisions only when you cannot make or communicate those decisions yourself.
In a living will, you tell others about the healthcare you want or do not want if you're unable to make your own decisions. For example, a living will can say whether you would want to be fed through a tube if you were in a coma and unlikely to recover.
In a prehospital medical care directive, you can refuse cardiopulmonary resuscitation, or CPR, a type of lifesaving emergency care, if you have a heart attack or can’t breathe. To create a prehospital medical care directive, you must complete a special orange form. This directive is used by people with terminal illnesses who don’t want to be saved if they have a heart attack or other emergency outside a hospital or in the hospital emergency room.
Your most frequently asked questions
You have the right to make your own healthcare decisions, as long as you are able to make those decisions and communicate them. Your doctors should tell you about the treatment they recommend, reasonable alternatives and important medical risks and benefits of that treatment. You have the right to decide what healthcare, if any, you will accept.
If you plan ahead, you can still have some control over your healthcare. One way is by completing an advance directive that names someone to make these healthcare decisions for you if you can’t, or someone who guides or controls these decisions.
It’s a written statement about who can make decisions for you and what wishes you have regarding your healthcare.
Yes. Both healthcare providers and surrogates must follow valid advance directives. However, a prehospital medical care directive applies only in the hospital emergency room or when emergency medical personnel respond to a call for emergency help.
No. Whether you make a healthcare directive is entirely up to you. A healthcare provider cannot refuse care based on whether you have a healthcare directive.
Yes. If you change or revoke a healthcare directive, you should notify everyone who has a copy.
Yes. You have the right to revise your healthcare directives at any time. You should review your healthcare directives once in a while and update them if your wishes change.
If a court appoints a guardian to make your healthcare decisions, your healthcare providers will look to the guardian for those decisions. If you don’t have a guardian, but you name someone as an “agent” in your healthcare power of attorney or mental healthcare power of attorney, your heathcare providers will look to your agent to make those decisions.
If you don’t have a guardian or an agent under a power of attorney, your healthcare providers must ask other people who are close to you to make these decisions. A person who makes healthcare decisions for you is called a surrogate. To find a surrogate, your healthcare provider must go down the following list in order of priority: Your husband or wife, unless you're legally separated; your adult child; if you have more than one adult child, the healthcare provider will follow the wishes of a majority of your children who are available; your mother or father; your domestic partner, unless someone else has financial responsibility for you; your brother or sister; a close friend of yours or someone who shows special concern for you and is familiar with your healthcare preferences. If your healthcare provider can't find a person who's available and willing to make healthcare decisions for you, your doctor can make decisions for you if he or she asks for the advice of an ethics committee or another doctor. You can stop anyone from becoming your surrogate by saying that you do not want that person to make healthcare decisions for you. It's best to do this in writing.
A surrogate from the list above may make any decision about your healthcare, as long as that decision is consistent with the wishes you've expressed in your healthcare directives. A surrogate cannot refuse the use of tubes to give you food or fluids unless you have stated in your healthcare directive that you do not want this treatment.
Yes. A guardian appointed by a court, a person you name in your healthcare power of attorney or mental healthcare power of attorney, or a surrogate from the list above can makes decisions about your mental healthcare treatment. However, these people cannot admit you to an inpatient psychiatric hospital for longer than 48 hours unless you give them that authority in your healthcare power of attorney or your mental healthcare power of attorney, or if a court gives the person this authority.
If you made a healthcare directive in another state, it is valid in Arizona as long as it was valid in the other state.
No. Just be sure that your directive is valid under Arizona law.
Unless your power of attorney was made before September 1992, a healthcare power of attorney or mental healthcare power of attorney must: 1. Name a person to make healthcare decisions for you if you become unable to make your own decisions. You may also name an additional person or persons to make decisions for you if your first choice can’t do it. The person or persons must be at least 18 years old. 2. Be signed or marked by you and dated. 3. Be signed by a notary or by an adult witness who saw you sign or mark the document, and who says you appear to be of sound mind and free from duress. A notary or witness cannot be the person you name to make your decisions and cannot be providing healthcare to you. 4. If you have only one witness, that witness cannot be related to you or someone who will get any of your property if you die. If you give this person power to admit you to an inpatient psychiatric hospital, this paragraph must be separately initialed by you.
Unless your living will was made before September 1992, the living will must: 1. State how you want your healthcare decisions to be made in the future. 2. Be signed or marked by you and dated. 3. Be notarized or witnessed in the same way as described above for a healthcare power of attorney.
A prehospital medical care directive must be: 1. In exactly the form required by law. 2. Printed on an orange background. 3. Signed or marked by you and dated. 4. Signed by a licensed healthcare provider and a witness. If you have signed an orange prehospital medical care directive, you may also wear a special orange bracelet. It must state your name, your doctor’s name, and the words “do not resuscitate.” This bracelet will call to the attention of emergency medical personnel that you have completed the form and that you do not want cardiopulmonary resuscitation outside a hospital or in a hospital emergency room. You should talk to your doctor about a prehospital medical care directive if you are thinking about signing one. Forms are available through the Office of Emergency Medical Services in the Department of Health Services, although you may use any prehospital medical care directive in the exact form that meets the requirements of the law.
It’s very important that you give copies to your doctors now. You should give copies to any healthcare facility upon admission. You should give copies to anyone who you have named to make healthcare decisions for you in a healthcare power of attorney or mental healthcare power of attorney. Be sure to keep extra copies for yourself.
You can always speak to your healthcare providers. Also, you can file a complaint with the Arizona Department of Health Services if you believe your healthcare providers are not following the law.
You can ask your healthcare provider to give you forms. Also, you can get forms and information from: Aging and Adult Administration, State of Arizona, 1789 West Jefferson, Site Code 950A, Phoenix, AZ 85007 602-542-4446; Arizona Senior Citizens Law Project, 1818 South 16th Street, Phoenix, AZ 85034 602-252-6710; or the Arizona State Registry Program. Your local Area Agency on Aging and Senior Center may also have forms and information.