Pilot program gives medical providers the ability to ensure healthcare wishes are honored

February 18, 2009 
 
A common challenge in healthcare today is the difficulty of ensuring that a patient’s end-of-life healthcare wishes are communicated and honored from one care setting to another. A community coalition, made up of area healthcare agencies in Linn County, identified this issue and worked together to find a solution.

The coalition -- formally called HOPE, Honoring Our Patients’ Expectations for Health Care Decision Making -- has seen their work result in a two-year pilot program. The program was included in the Iowa Health Care Reform bill (HF2539). The program uses a tool, which is an official form called the Iowa Physician’s Order for Scope of Treatment or IPOST.

This form is a legal document, which will be used in the Cedar Rapids area in acute care hospitals, long-term care and assisted living facilities and hospice programs. Emergency medical systems will recognize this form for treatment direction. This standardized form converts a patient’s advance directives into actionable medical orders.

A trained advance care planning healthcare professional, in collaboration with a doctor or nurse practitioner, will assist a patient and/or family to complete the IPOST form after understanding and assessing the patient’s beliefs and goals of care. If the patient needs medical care – the patient or their designated healthcare decision maker will carry the form with the patient to the hospital or long-term care facility to ensure the patient’s healthcare wishes are honored.

During this pilot program IPOST is only available to patients that are frail, elderly, seriously ill, diagnosed with a chronic disease or terminally ill. Implementation in Linn County will commence after February 23, 2009. The goal of two-year program is eventual implementation state-wide, which is ultimately up to state lawmakers.

There are currently six other states with similar programs in the United States.

MEDIA CONTACTS: Sarah Corizzo, St. Luke’s Hospital, 369-8372 or Karen Vander Sanden, Mercy Medical Center, 398-6083