Advanced Health Care Directives

An Advance Health Care Directive is an instrument that allows you to appoint someone to make your health care decisions when you are unable to do so. The instrument is authorized in Florida under Chapter 765 of the Florida Statutes “Health Care Advance Directives”. This instrument is only effective when the person who has executed it has become incapacitated or incompetent. Those later two terms mean that the person is physically or mentally unable to communicate a willful and knowing health care decision. The key provision of the Advance Health Care Directive is that the person, making the decision for the patient must make the decision the patient would make were he able to do so. At Mark R. Lewis, PA, we call this instrument a Surrogate Decision Maker Designation.

There was a recent case in Pinellas County, Florida, known as the Schiavo case and many people have heard about it as involved a young woman in a coma or persistent vegetative state (although her parents disputed this) and the question then became and was litigated for years as to what her wishes were. At Mark R. Lewis, PA, we have developed a medical directive which describes various medical conditions and medical treatments and allows the patient to specify when and under what conditions the treatments will be made or refused.

It is not the same as a health care power of attorney as that is authorized by a different Chapter of the Florida Statutes, to wit, Chapter 709 and a health care power of attorney does not require the incapacity of the patient.