If you have an advance directive, Imboden Creek will honor it—if you don’t have one, you should talk to your loved ones about creating one.

An advance directive is a document that includes both a living will and power of attorney for health care.

• A living will lets your doctor know whether to keep treating you, or stop treating you should you become dependent on life support. Typically, a living will goes into effect when you can no longer make your own decisions regarding health care and are diagnosed as terminally ill, permanently unconscious, or in an enduring vegetative state.


• A health care power of attorney lets you appoint someone else to make your medical decisions should you become unable to do so. When choosing this person, they should know you well enough to know how you would want your medical care to be handled—and they should be someone you can trust to make that call. An advance directive isn’t a requirement to entering a nursing home or hospital, but if there are any policies that will restrict them from honoring the directive, they will let you know upon admittance. Either way, your directive will be made part of your record at the nursing home or hospital.

Advance directives are generally recognized from state to state, but to be sure you should re-create the directive upon relocating to a new state. When traveling you should carry a card with you that lets people know who has health care power of attorney and the person with a copy of your living will.

If you decide that you want to do things differently than your advance directive states, you can change it. The purpose of any advanced directive is to let you make more of the decisions regarding your health care. You can change your advance directive at any time, and should review it periodically.