State health commissioner encourages advance directives
5 April 2012
In honor of the upcoming
National Health Care Decisions Day, April 16, Virginia State Health Commissioner
Karen Remley, M.D., M.B.A., FAAP released a clinicians’ letter to promote the advance directory registry available at
www.virginiaregistry.org. She also encourages all clinicians to take part in MSV’s 2012 Lead by Example campaign, which challenges health care providers to lead the way in using the registry in order to reach a goal of 2,102 registrants by April 16.
Please take a few moments to lead the way for your staff and patients by uploading your health care advance directive and encouraging them to do the same. For each registrant, the MSV Foundation will dedicate $1 toward advance care planning and programming for providers.
Instructions
Visit
www.virginiaregistry.org to create a new account where you can securely store your care planning documents. If you do not have an advance health care directive, you can download a blank form
here.
About the registry
The Commonwealth of Virginia Advance Health Care Directive Registry is a secure tool that allows Virginia residents to store critical planning documents such as advance health care directives, health care power of attorney and declaration of anatomical gift for access by authorized medical providers, emergency responders, and family members. Visit
www.virginiaregistry.org to learn more.
For more tools about advance directives and end of life planning, visit
www.msv.org/advancedirectives.