Advanced Directives

Your right to make medical care decisions includes giving “advance directives” which are written instructions concerning your wishes about your medical treatment. These instructions are used in the event you become unable to make health care decisions for yourself. You must be given information on advance directives by Medicare- and Medicaid-funded hospitals at the time you are admitted as a patient. You must also be given written information on facility policies concerning advance directives.

Please understand that you are not required to have an advance directive in order to receive care and treatment, or for admission to a facility. You must only be informed about them. Whether or not you have an advance directive, you will receive the medical care and treatment appropriate for your condition and consistent with your consent and facility policies.

If you spend a great deal of time in more than one state, you may wish to consider having an advance directive that meets the requirements of the laws of all the states where you spend significant time. You should prepare an advance directive before you get too sick to think or communicate clearly.

If you have prepared and signed an advance directive, it will represent your wishes if you become unable to make health care decisions for yourself. These documents do not take away your right to decide what you want, if you are able to do so at the time a decision is needed. If you have an advance directive from another state, it may still be valid in Colorado. However, it is recommended you prepare a new advance directive under Colorado law.

A Living Will is a signed, dated and witnessed document you prepare to tell others what type of care you want or don’t want if you become terminally ill. You can print this Living Will form, sign it and give a copy to a hospital representative and your physician.

A Medical Durable Power of Attorney is a document in which you appoint someone to make health care decisions for you when you are unable to make them yourself. You can print this Medical Durable Power of Attorney form, sign it and give a copy to a hospital representative and your physician.

A Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) Directive allows you or your medical proxy to refuse resuscitation (CPR) if you stop breathing or your heart stops. CPR Directive forms can be obtained from your physician or nurse.

More information can be found in this brochure - Your Right to Make Health Care Decisions.

Under Colorado law, family members and close friends can select a substitute decision maker (proxy) for you if you do not have an advance directive or a guardian, and if a doctor or a judge determines that you are unable to make medical decisions. Your spouse or parent or adult child, grandchild, brother/sister, or a close friend may be chosen as the proxy by mutual agreement.

A proxy can make decisions about all kinds of personal and medical care, and shall comply with your wishes for medical care, if known. (If your wishes are not known, the proxy is to act in your best interest.)

If any of the people entitled to choose your proxy disagree with the choice, or with the proxy’s actions, or no proxy can be agreed upon, then that person can ask the court to start a guardianship. Under Colorado’s proxy law, no member of the group has “automatic” priority. The person chosen as your proxy should be the one who knows your medical wishes the best.

A guardian is a person appointed by a court to assist with the personal affairs of an individual who is unable to make his own decisions. The law regards a person as being unable to make personal decisions if he lacks sufficient understanding or capacity to make or communicate responsible decisions concerning himself. This may result from mental illness, mental retardation, physical illness or disability, chronic use of drugs and/or alcohol or other causes. A person who is subject to a guardianship is called a “ward.”

It is important to recognize that, other than in emergency situations, it may take several months for the appointment of a guardian.

Any person aged 21 or over, or an appropriate agency which is willing to serve, may be appointed as a guardian. Guardianship can be shared by more than one individual.

Generally, the duties of a guardian are to determine where the ward should live, to arrange for necessary care, treatment or other services for the ward, and to see that the basic daily personal needs of the ward are met, including food, clothing and shelter. A court order may allow a guardian to make medical care and treatment decisions.

Any Living Will, Medical Durable Power of Attorney and CPR Directive may include a written statement indicating a decision regarding organ and tissue donation. Organ donation may also be accomplished by signing a separate document executed in accordance with the provisions of the “Uniform Anatomical Gift Act”. You should consult your health care provider for specifics. You should also notify your family of your decision to give an anatomical gift.