ROBERT PIERCE

   • Leader & Times

Southwest Medical Center’s Patient Family Advisory Council (PFAC) is group of community members and hospital staff, and the community members assist the hospital staff in providing a public viewpoint on various projects.

This year, the PFAC group is working on advance directives, which SWMC Performance Improvement and Risk Management Director Jennifer Smith said are documents individuals have put in place to explain their choices or medical care if they become too sick or hurt to speak for themselves.

The two most common types of advance directives, and the ones hospitals are required to ask about, are living wills and health care durable power of attorney (DPOA).

Smith said PFAC’s 2026 project is meant to get education to the public on advance directives, and she said many times, patients come to the hospital without a way of obtaining a copy of such documents to give hospital staff, or they do not have them in place at all.

“If they don’t have one in place at all, we can do that here, but if they have these already in place ahead of time, we’d like to let the public know they can bring those to our medical records department,” she said. “We can have those put into their medical records so they’re here, and they don’t have to worry about it when they’re sick or a time comes when they can’t bring it.”

Smith said having a living will and DPOA in place gives families an advantage should a worst case scenario happen when a loved one cannot speak for themselves.

The PFAC group was launched at SWMC in 2024, and in its short history, Smith said the group has done well.

“We’ve done a couple different projects over the past few years such as educating the public on speaking up about diagnostic error when they have more questions and to ask questions to help the physicians better diagnose the patient and how to keep track of their medical health and have a voice in their medical health,” she said. “That goes along with this year, being able to speak about your wishes and what you want done when you can’t and making sure you’re planning for your future health care.”

The PFAC group will be on hand Oct. 3 for this year’s Community Health Fair at the Seward County Activity Center, and Smith said those visiting the booth can get some education about DPOAs and living wills.

There will likewise be forms available at the booth, but Smith said those forms are not necessarily to be filled out at the health fair, but rather to provide education about advance directives.

“We’ll have forms they can take, fill out, bring back and have put in their medical records later,” she said. “Those forms are also on our Web site currently, so patients can get those anytime, fill them out and drop them off at our medical records department.”

Smith said many people have DPOAs in place for finances, but not for health care.

“This is somebody who can make those decision for them, and the patient names that person,” she said. “If you don’t have somebody in writing who you want to make your health care decisions for you, it goes to your spouse can make those decisions or any adult child, but there’s a lot of people who don’t have those people in place, or they don’t have a spouse who can make cognitive decisions. You think of these things you need as you get older, but things can happen anytime that can incapacitate you where you could not make decisions for yourself. It’s good at any age to have things in place regarding what you wish.”

With the death of a DPOA a possibility, Smith said people can name more than one person on the form, and those names can be changed at anytime.

“One thing we ask when you come in is if you already have one in place,” she said. “Is it still active? Is there any changes that have occurred since you filled this out?”

For Smith, the importance of having advance directives in place means letting a DPOA know the person’s wishes, and trust is also important when selecting a person to carry out those wishes.

“A lot of times, families have six kids, and they don’t all agree about what should happen to Mom or Dad, but what did Mom or Dad really want,” she said.

Smith said nothing legal has to be done when selecting a DPOA.

“You don’t have to have a lawyer to draw anything up,” she said. “You can get the forms online, print them out. You can fill them out. In Kansas, you have to have either two witnesses or have it notarized. You would sign it in front of a notary. You don’t have to have both, but it’s always a good idea to get it notarized to have that. The person you’ve named should get a copy of that as well.”

Smith said some states have different laws, but ultimately, Kansans with DPOAs in a different state will go by directives formed in the Sunflower State.

Though many do not have DPOAs for health care, Smith said the practice is commonly used still among many others.

“I think nursing homes like to have them,” she said. “They may even require them. I’m not sure. A lot of elderly patients don’t have them in place, and we have to ask everybody. There’s a lot who don’t have them in place. Even if you’re not normally confused, having a sudden illness or infection can make you that way temporarily, and that can definitely be when there’s a need for that to be done for them to have that in place.”

Smith said mistakes are seldom made with forms, as the forms themselves typically guide people through what they want.

“Some have things being specific, and some don’t. Some have I don’t want CPR. Some have I don’t want a feeding tube, but I do want CPR, and I want a ventilator. There’s specific things. If you want to think of all those things to put in your living will, you can, and if you don’t, that’s fine too.”

Smith said the forms available at SWMC are quite general.

“You can put down whatever,” she said. “You may not always think of some of the things you might consider, so we are looking at possibly creating some different forms. With the PFAC, the public has helped us to look at that and see how they understand and what forms make more sense to them.”

Directives such as “do not resuscitate” orders can likewise be included in living wills.

“Some people put things if my spouse and the physician have given advice that I won’t ever recover to where I was originally, I don’t want to continue life support,” Smith said. “You can have specifics such as that.”

Smith said the most important factor in selecting a DPOA is having someone to carry out a person’s wishes.

“You should also consider making sure your physician has a copy if you have a regular doctor you see and the hospital you regularly go to has a copy,” he said. “If we have a copy, it can be scanned into your medical record, and you can pull it up on the patient portal if you were to go anywhere else, view it and show it to any provider.”

Smith said advance directives can be useful regardless of a person’s age.

“As you get older, the older individuals need to think about those conversations with their families and putting thing into place, but it’s not up to just one individual group of age or person,” she said. “Any age, any person should think about it and put it in place.”

Smith said other resources are available online from the State of Kansas and K-State Research and Extension.

“There’s definitely places out there that can help if they have questions,” she said. “We can answer questions, especially if they area patient in the hospital and they want to prepare one. It’s definitely best to do ahead of time, but if they come to a time when they’re in the hospital and they’re still of sound mind and they can make those decisions, we can assist in the hospital and get that done as well.”

Smith said when people come to SWMC as patients, they are given information about advance directives.

“Attorneys do have the information as well,” she said. “Sometimes when people are doing end-of-life planning with finances, they often include these things. You can do these and not have to go through an attorney.”