Your right to choose your healthcare options
Thank you for your interest in Advance Health Care Directives! Advance directives are legally recognized forms telling your family and medical providers who you want to make medical decisions for you when you are unable to make decisions.
You can also use the advance directive to indicate the kinds of life-sustaining interventions you may or may not want when your doctor determines that you are at the end of your life, and you are unable to make medical decisions. Beebe Healthcare encourages every adult living in Sussex County to complete a directive and to share it with others. Regardless of your age or health, an Advance Health Care Directive protects your choices. The information shared on these pages will answer many questions. Please scroll through the list of FAQs on this page and select the topics of interest to you.
The Web links below connect to several different and valid advance directive forms, including an information packet and form developed specifically by Beebe Healthcare. Click on the link “Health Care Directives” to find the Beebe Advance Healthcare Directive guides in both English and Spanish. The Beebe forms can be completed electronically and printed from your computer. You will also find links to the popular Five Wishes planning guide, as well as the form endorsed by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Wilmington, DE, and the Delaware section of PREPARE, a national advance directive education service.
Beebe Healthcare Palliative Care Patients
Our Palliative Care team serves patients who want to maintain the best quality of life while living with chronic diseases. Patients enrolled in Beebe’s Palliative Care program can complete an advance directive during appointments with their Palliative Care providers. Click to learn more about Beebe’s Palliative Care Program. You can also learn more about the Delaware Medical Orders for Scope of Treatment (DMOST) by following the Palliative Care link.
Sincerely,
The Beebe Healthcare Patient Experience Department
About Advance Healthcare Directives
As a competent adult, you have the legal right to make your own healthcare decisions. Your doctor or another healthcare professional advise you and make recommendations about treatment. You have the right to receive this information in a way you can understand. You have the authority to say “yes” to any treatment that is offered to you, and to say “no” to any treatment that you do not want.
Your Advance Health Care Directive will tell your doctor who you want to make medical decisions for you, as well as give directions about certain treatments if you become unable to decide yourself. If you have not completed an advance directive, a family member or close friend will be asked to decide for you. (See the section “WHAT HAPPENS IF I MAKE NO ADVANCE DIRECTIVE” for details.)
In Delaware, if you are at least 18 years old you may make a written Advance Health Care Directive. The directive tells your medical providers who you want to make decisions when you are unable. The advance directive can also indicate which life-sustaining treatments and other medical treatments you will accept or refuse when you are terminally ill, permanently unconscious, or medically frail.
Under Delaware law, Advance Health Care Directives have two sections:
1) Power of Attorney for Health Care
2) Instruction for Health Care Decisions
The Power of Attorney for Health Care allows you to name another person as your agent to make healthcare decisions for you if your medical condition makes you unable to do so. You can appoint any adult over the age of 18 to be your agent. However, if you are a resident of a long-term care facility, the agent cannot be an employee of the facility unless he/she is related to you.
An Instruction for Health Care Decisions is a written statement of your choices about health care treatment. It includes your instructions for treatment when you are terminally ill, permanently unconscious or suffer from serious illness or frailty.
If you want to initiate an Advance Health Care Directive, you must do so while you are still capable and competent to make health care decisions. Two witnesses who are at least 18 years old must watch you sign the Advance Health Care Directive. You must choose witnesses who are not members of your family, will not inherit anything from you when you die, and do not have to pay for your care. If you are in a hospital, nursing home or similar facility when you sign your written instruction, you must choose witnesses who are not employees of the facility. In addition, if you are in a nursing home or similar facility, one of the witnesses must be a Long-Term Care Ombudsman or the Public Guardian. If you do not have an Advance Health Care Directive and you are unable to make decisions, a member of your family will not be able to make an advance directive for you but will be asked to make healthcare choices for you.
You should keep the original and give copies to your family members, your doctor, and other healthcare providers. It will become part of your medical record. If you want, you can also give copies to close friends, your lawyer, or your clergy. Copies are legally valid records of your advance directive.
You can revoke your Advance Health Care Directive at any time by destroying it, by making a new one, or by simultaneously telling two adults that you no longer wish your Advance Health Care Directive to be effective. You should also, in writing, inform your doctor or any other healthcare provider and any health agent you have named of your decision to revoke the directive.
State laws vary considerably on Advance Health Care Directives. While the Advance Health Care Directive you make in one state may be good in another state, there is no guarantee. If you move to another state, you should make a new Advance Health Care Directive in that state. If you have a valid Advance Health Care Directive from another state, it will be valid in Delaware to the extent it is consistent with Delaware law.
No, Delaware law requires the signatures of two witnesses who meet certain criteria. (See the advance directive form for details regarding eligibility.) A public notary can notarize the witnesses’ signatures, but a notarized directive without signatures is not legally valid.
Delaware law provides that life-sustaining procedures cannot be withheld or withdrawn from a pregnant patient, so long as it is probable that the child will develop to the point of live birth with the application of life-sustaining treatment.
You are not required to make an Advance Health Care Directive. However, without an Advance Health Care Directive, a member of your family, who may be referred to as your agent, will be asked to make healthcare decisions for you. The following family members, if available, will be asked in this order:
1) Your legally recognized spouse, unless a petition for divorce has been filed; or unless the patient has filed a petition or complaints alleging abuse.
2) Your adult child or children; if you have more than one child and you have not designated a specific child, the children will be asked to decide by consensus.
3) Your parents, who will be asked to decide by consensus unless you have designated one parent.
4) Your adult brother or sister, who, if you have more than one sibling, will be asked to decide by consensus.
5) Your adult grandchildren, who, if you have more than one grandchild, will be asked to decide by consensus.
6) Your adult niece or nephew, who, if you have more than one niece or nephew, will be asked to decide by consensus.
7) Your adult aunt or uncle, who, if you have more than one aunt or uncle, will be asked to decide by consensus.
If none of these family members are available to make health decisions for you, a close friend who is willing to become involved with your healthcare, who has maintained regular contact with you, and is familiar with your activities, health, personal values, and morals may make decisions by executing and presenting to the healthcare provider an affidavit attesting to the above.
If no qualifying close friend is available, a guardian may be appointed by the Court.
Download a copy of the Advance Directives packet from this website. You can also use the web links to other resources. You are welcome to call Beebe's Patient Advocate office: (302) 645-3547. You may also consult your personal attorney.