Monday, April 19, 2010

Session on Patient/Client Health Care Decisions

On Thursday, April 22, 2010, from 4 to 6 p.m., a continuing education seminar entitled "Documenting and Implementing Patient/Client Health Care Decisions" will be presented at the Allegheny County Bar Association, in its Auditorium on the Seventh Floor of the City-County Building.

The sponsors are:

Speakers include:
  • Robert B. Wolf, Esquire, Tener, Van Kirk, Wolf & Moore, PC
  • Judith S. Black, M.D., MHA, of Highmark Inc.
  • Raymond C. Vogliano, Esquire, of Eckert Seamans Cherin & Mellott, LLC, as Moderator
This is the Agenda:
  • Mr. Vogliano: 4:00 p.m .-- Introduction of Program
  • Mr. Wolf: 4:05 - 5:00 p.m. --Legal and Medical Background of Medical Decision Making; The Impact of Act 169; The New Patient Health Care Representative;Drafting the Durable Health Care Power of Attorney & Living Will; and The ACBA/ACMS Endorsed Form (Choosing and Using the Right Form)
  • Dr. Black: 5:00 p.m. - 5:45 p.m. --Defining the Role of the Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment (POLST); Framework for Exploring Patient Goals and Guiding POLST Decisions; and Recognizing and Promoting the Value of POLST in Assuring Patients’ Health Care Treatment Choices are Respected
  • Panel: 5:45 p.m. - 6:00 pm -- Q & A; and Conclusion
The brochure notes the significance of the session in a one-sentence summary:
The program will provide continuing education credits for attorneys, physicians, nurses, nursing home administrators, and social workers in a first of its kind multidisciplinary seminar which will focus on the endorsed form of the ACBA/ACMS Health Care Power of Attorney and Living Will Form that is available to all professionals and the general public for free download from the Bar Association and Medical Society websites, and the Physician Orders for Life Sustaining Treatment or POLST form, which is a physician order that implements the treatment wishes of patients and is designed to portable from one care setting to another.
For those providers or advisers in Western Pennsylvania who have not attended a session over the past three years about the new Chapter 54 of the Probate, Estates & Fiduciaries Code, or want an update on the P.O.L.S.T. movement, this is a great opportunity. Registration is required.