Legal Definitions - physician's directive

A physician's directive is a formal instruction or set of guidelines provided by a patient to their healthcare providers, typically a physician, regarding their future medical care. These directives are created in advance, to be followed if the patient becomes unable to communicate their wishes due to illness, injury, or incapacitation. It serves as a legal document that ensures a patient's healthcare decisions and preferences are respected, even when they cannot speak for themselves. This term is often used interchangeably with or as a specific type of "advance directive."

• Example 1: An individual with a chronic heart condition, concerned about potential future incapacitation, completes a physician's directive stating that if they experience a severe stroke that leaves them permanently unconscious with no chance of recovery, they do not wish to be resuscitated or kept alive indefinitely through mechanical ventilation.

  Explanation: This illustrates a physician's directive because the patient is providing clear, advance instructions to their medical team about specific life-sustaining treatments they wish to refuse under defined future circumstances, ensuring their end-of-life wishes are known and followed.

• Example 2: A person who has a severe allergy to a common antibiotic drafts a physician's directive explicitly listing the medication and instructing all healthcare providers never to administer it, even in emergency situations, and to use specified alternative treatments instead.

  Explanation: This demonstrates a physician's directive as it's a patient's pre-stated command to their healthcare providers regarding a particular medical intervention, ensuring their critical medical information and preferences are honored during any future medical care, especially if they are unable to communicate due to an allergic reaction or other emergency.

• Example 3: A patient undergoing treatment for a progressive neurodegenerative disease creates a physician's directive detailing their preferences for comfort care. They specify that in the advanced stages of their illness, they wish for aggressive pain management and palliative care focused on quality of life, rather than invasive procedures aimed at prolonging life without significant improvement in their condition.

  Explanation: This example shows a physician's directive guiding the medical team on a patient's specific wishes regarding their comfort and overall treatment philosophy, made in advance to ensure their preferences are followed even if they become too ill to articulate them during a crisis or at the end of life.