February 14, 2020
This article is contributed by LegacyShare. We are the leading service helping you share your legacy with the ones you love and trust so you can confidently know your legacy will transition smoothly. Please visit our website at legacyshares.com to review our services and to set up your legacy transition today.
General Healthcare Proxies are a must have! This will ensure the best possible outcome for you, your family, and beneficiaries in those times of need when you are the patient in a terminally ill, or unconscious state. During these situations where you cannot speak, or think for yourself you need to have outlined for the medical providers who in fact will be making decisions on your behalf. Either to carry on your wishes or beliefs in life or death. This is so important that we here at LegacyShare cannot stress this enough and have been inspired to bridge the communication gap so that your loved ones will always be informed.
In greater detail, a healthcare proxy is a document that can help clarify one’s values, wishes, and beliefs as it relates to intervening in serious medical situations. End of life care is critical, and the decisions doctors and we as patients make are often times made faster than we have time for. This document can be stored with your medical records, legal representatives or even right here in your LegacyShare profile with your identified proxy themselves, or beneficiary.
The goal is to be as prepared as possible in identifying individuals who can make these decisions for us and the patient’s future in mind.
The American Bar Association says it best in a recent article about healthcare proxies and living wills here:
“As with living wills, depending on your state of residence, the health care proxy may be a standard or statutory form or it may be drafted specifically for you by your lawyer. Normally, one person (not multiple persons to act at one time) is appointed as your health care proxy. It is quite common, however, for you to appoint one or more alternate persons (successors) in the event your first choice proxy is unavailable. You should confirm prior to appointing someone as your proxy that he or she will in fact be willing and able to carry out your wishes. If your preferred proxy has, for example, a religious view that prevents him or her from carrying out your wishes, you should name someone else. As in the case of a living will, medical professionals will make the initial determination as to whether you have the capacity to make your own medical treatment decisions.”
It is important to have a general healthcare proxy in place and to seek the proper legal counsel to ensure you have the correct documents to represent you in your respected state. LegacyShare is a perfect place to store these documents and to keep your “keyholder” notified of your wishes and any updates with your decisions.
Legacies are meant to be shared.
-LegacyShare
