By law, hospitals and health care institutions are required to ask patients when they are admitted if they have an advance directive. You, as a patient, will be asked this question each time you are admitted to the hospital and will need to provide a copy of your advance directives, if your have one, to the hospital each time as well because of the sensitive nature of advance directives, St. Elizabeth will not accept copies of advance directives before you are admitted. Through advance directives, you can make legally valid decisions about your future medical care.
Kentucky law recognizes several types of advance directives.
They include living wills, health care surrogate designations, durable powers of attorney and living will directives. Any person age 18 or over who is of sound mind may make an advance directive. Surrogate Designation Document or another written document, to make medical decisions for you when you are not able to decide for yourself. In general, your surrogate has the authority to make any medical care decisions that you may make for yourself. A surrogate cannot reject life-prolonging treatment for a pregnant woman except in limited circumstances.