Blog / News / Press

April 16th is National Healthcare Decisions Day

rainbowadmin, April 10, 2018

“Nothing is certain but death and taxes.”
–Benjamin Franklin

Observed the day after Tax Day, National Healthcare Decisions Day is about helping people talk about their wishes for end-of-life care, documenting and communicating care preferences to family and health care providers.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, only one-third of American adults have an advance directive documenting their end-of-life wishes. Yet a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation study found that less than half of physicians knew their patients’ preferences involving cardiopulmonary resuscitation.

Completion of an advance directive, including the POLST/DNR (Practitioner Orders for Life Sustaining Treatment/Do Not Resuscitate Order), Power of Attorney for Healthcare, Five Wishes, Living Will, and Mental Health Preference Declaration, is shown to decrease unnecessary medical interventions, increasing patient satisfaction and decreasing expenditures.

This National Healthcare Decisions Day, give your loved ones one of the greatest gifts of all—peace of mind and sound decision-making when it’s needed most. Have a conversation with your family and those you hold dear. Ask questions. Be open. After all, “it always seems too early, until it’s too late.”

Rainbow Hospice and Palliative Care is hosting educational presentations in observance of National Healthcare Decisions Day. Attend one of our planned events or request one here.

• Central Baptist Village
  4747 N. Canfield Avenue, Norridge, IL 60706
  Monday, April 16, 2018, 10:00—11:45 a.m.

• Presence Villa Franciscan
  210 N. Springfield AvenueJoliet, IL 60435
  Tuesday, April 24, 2018, 2:00—4:00 p.m.
  More information here.

For more information about advance care planning, please contact us at 847-685-9900 and ask to speak with a clinical manager.