Thursday was National Healthcare Decisions Day, a clumsy name for sure, but one that nonetheless highlights an important effort underway across the country: getting American families to sit down, and document, what they want in terms of medical care should tragedy – or even end-of-life issues arise.
Three-quarters of Americans have no such plan in place. That means siblings could be confused over what a parent’s wishes might be. Doctors could provide unwanted care. And most importantly, the patient may not be getting what he or she wants.
Nathan Rottkamp, a healthcare attorney at McGuireWoods, is a national expert on Advance Medical Directives and living wills. In this interview with CBS-6 he provides an easy way to get the conversation going.
In addition here’s a link to the website offering the national perspective on the problem: http://www.nhdd.org/
