POLST – Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment
In addition to an advance directive, your loved one should talk with his or her health care provider about a Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment (POLST). This is literally an order from a doctor detailing the life support treatments your relative wishes to receive or not receive. Think of it like a prescription.
Across all settings In the chain of command of the medical system, a POLST provides the instructions for all the other people on the health care team. No matter where your loved one is—at the hospital, in a skilled nursing facility, or at home with EMTs (emergency medical techs) from a 911 call—the POLST makes it clear what the staff is supposed to do, or not do, to be true to your loved one’s wishes.
Shared decision-making tool Although the order is from the doctor, the POLST is designed to be a tool to assist in a conversation with your relative. The doctor can describe the different life support measures, their pros and cons. It is your loved one who makes the decision about which ones feel right for his or her values and desired quality of life.
Your loved one stays in control With a POLST, your relative’s choices are what matters. He or she has set the course ahead of time so care unfolds according to his or her wishes, even if your loved one is unconscious or unable to speak when the time comes.
Get help with the conversation If you would like to have someone to talk to about the POLST, give us a call at 602-888-7037. We are well-versed in this document and have people dedicated to answering your questions!
The doctor will keep it in his or her medical records. If the doctor’s office is linked up with the local hospital’s electronic record system, they will have it also. You should ask for a copy. Keep it on the refrigerator at your loved one’s home. Emergency medical techs (the people who respond to 911 calls) are trained to look there for important documents and instructions like the POLST. If you are driving to the hospital yourselves, without an ambulance, try to remember to bring the POLST with you. It simply helps to keep it with your relative at all times.
• How is a POLST different from an advance directive?
Many people wonder whether they need to complete a POLST AND an advance directive. The answer is YES. An advance directive names your loved one’s preferred decision maker. It also gives a general sense of preferred life support measures. Advance directives can come in several formats and they are not always the same. They often include room for more descriptions, like a conversation. In an emergency, medical staff need short, easy to find, quick instructions. A POLST provides that and makes sure that each of the possible life support measures has been addressed.
• Can a POLST be changed?
Yes. As long as your loved one is conscious and can talk to the doctor about his or her wishes, a new POLST can be created. It will be put in the medical records and your relative will be given a new form to replace the old one.
• Where can we learn more about life support measures?
Check out our article about Health Care Planning. There is a section about life support measures. For each intervention, it will give you some facts about success rates, long-term consequences, risks and benefits. Reading this before meeting with the doctor can help your loved one prepare questions for the conversation.
• Should everyone have a POLST?
No. Unlike an advance directive, a POLST is just for people who are seriously ill. If your loved one does not want to have this discussion, a POLST is not required. Having a POLST simply adds greater certainty that all desired medical treatments, and only the desired medical treatments, will be employed.
Want to talk?
If you or your loved one have questions about the POLST, or about advance directives, give us a call at 602-888-7037. Our knowledgeable team can give you and your loved one the time that is needed to fully understand and work through the options.
What can you do to help your loved one make an appointment to create a POLST with his or her health care provider?
I would be in a world of madness without Ashelee and Diane. Their genuine care and follow through provided peace during the most trying days of my life. So thankful for Solace and their entire support team.
Solace Hospice cared for my husband during the last weeks of his life. Our team was compassionate, professional, and always available to provide direct care, arrange transport, or just talk. We felt encompassed by their excellent care and commitment throughout this journey.
As an Aging Specialist, a Senior Resource Center and over 20 years experience with Seniors “Solace Hospice” has excelled in comfort care and palliative care! They have been one of our preferred providers for years in Arizona. Their involvement in the Industry, their caring staff and their professional approach is appropriate when families need them most. Costel Roman the Director of Business Relations is the biggest advocate I have met in his Industry. Solace Hospice you are appreciated by thousands of families and Senior Living Communities in Arizona.
We could not be more grateful to Solace Hospice and their staff for taking care of our loved one, even though he was on service a short time. Everyone was so sweet to us and him and were very responsive to our needs and requests. The staff was skilled, informative, and available at any time of the day or night. Most importantly, they care about us. They spend time with us. We laugh together and cry together. We always looked forward to visits. Thank y'all for everything.
Been working with Solace Hospice for over a year and never cease to amaze me! They cater to each individuals needs and go beyond the scope of service. Stephanie, Sammy, Diane and Costel are doing a fantastic job, giving 110% of love and hard work and making sure everything that it’s needed arrives within 24 hours. If you’re looking for a great Hospice give them a chance, they will never disappoint.
I can’t say enough about Solace Hospice. The level of care and attention to personal detail is so much higher than the other hospice company I dealt with. My family recently experienced the loss of our mother followed by our father in fairly close succession. All I can say is thank you Solace and I wish I had discovered you sooner. My mom’s passing was handled by another company. I can tell you they are not the same. Solace operates with a premium degree of care and compassion during such a difficult time
I cannot thank Solace Hospice enough for the amount of love and support they have provided my family with during this hard time. They were attentive, caring, informative and overall extremely experienced in this field.A special thanks to Maggie, Bevery, Katie, Janet, Diana, (just a few of the many) for the help you provided.Thank you all so much!!!Enea
I would like to express my gratitude to Costel Roman - Director of Business Relation at Solace Hospice, Thomas Fedzin - Owner of Solace Hospice during a difficult time in my life. There is never an easy moment to loose a loved one. Costel Roman and Solace Hospice have helped my mother to go to Heaven and be with the angels peacefully. God bless all of you for being by my side!!!
Solace Hospic is Definitely #1 Hospic in Arizona a team that’s Compassionate towards the needs of not only patients but owners and also caregivers. Costel Roman is so Professional and always gets the job done . Ask him what he can’t do he will tell you what he can do to make the experience working with solace comfortable as possible. Solace will always be my go to Hospic.
I absolutely LOVE working with Costel and and Beverly!! Costel (AKA Roman) has excellent communication and I value his team immensely! I highly recommend this team if you are looking for a hospice company with great communication skills, friendly faces, and caring hearts!
As a nurse and the owner of several assisted livings, I have had many encounters with different hospices.Solace Hospice has been amazing and has gone above and beyond for my patients and their families! Always helpful, always receptive to the patients needs and always there when needed.Thank you Solace for the outstanding care and dedication your company and your staff provides.
We are so glad and relieved to have met Costel Roman of Solace Hospice.When he came to our assisted living homes and introduced himself he sat with us and explained Solace Hospice’s vision and approach to compassionate high quality care.We were very pleased to hear that residents and families needs are above all else.These past months we worked along side them with a few of our families in our homes .We cannot praise Costel and all of Solace’s staff Enough on the quality of care,professionalism demonstrated and the compassion showed by all of Solace’s staff to the families and our team.We will only recommend a company to our families if we know and experienced first hand that they are among the best in their profession.Congratulations to Solace for putting together an outstanding team. You guys definitely exceeded 5 stars! Luis Pescador.
We were recently reintroduced to Solace Hospice by Costel Roman and Jesse Watson, two of their community liasons, and in the process were impressed with their client-focused service. The biggest selling point for us as a group home is that they were not going to be a hospice that simply stopped fighting for a client and allowed them to die. Many of our residents and their families initially are fearful of the word “hospice” and typically think it means a death sentence. Many of them are not ready to give up the good fight and Solace has been a partner with our home to ensure the resident, their family, and our group homes are all respected and active partners in the continued care and needs of the resident. Everyone from their intake staff, RNs, and CNAs was compassionate, caring, and dutiful in their tasks. Special mention goes to the Nurse assigned to our home, Sabrina. She helped us guide the resident and their family through the difficult process of passing away, and her knowledge and compassion for my resident and her family will never be forgotten. Owning three different group home locations has given me plenty of experience and exposure to many different Hospice companies, but without a doubt, Solace Hospice is one of the best. I can not recommend them enough, whether you be a group home, a family member of a loved one, or someone looking to work at a hospice company. Thank you Costel, your team provided me much peace of mind. I look forward to continue to working with your team.
I cannot begin to describe the gratitude and appreciation my family feels about the experience we had with Solace Hospice. I didn’t know quite what to expect at the time when my father was on your service. My father had such great care! My concerns were quickly relieved. Thank you for the kindness and compassion you have given to us and for the genuine concern for my father and for our family. We sincerely appreciate your tireless effort to care for all your patients and their loved ones, and your eagerness to assist at every turn.
I own 5 assisted living group homes around the Phoenix area. I am always relieved when my residents and their families choose Solace Hospice to help their loved one. I can always rely on Thomas and his staff to take care of my residents. They interact incredibly well with my caregivers and offer assistance 24/7. And they back it up. There have been numerous times when we needed some help from Solace in the middle of the night. Someone from Solace would come out to the home without hesitation and take care of everything. Thank you Thomas for running such a wonderful company!
Great professional help during a hard time. Thank you for making things easier to manage during our time of need. They gave our loved one lots of comfort any time he needed it. Which added relief to me as I knew he was in good hands. Thank you so much Thomas and staff!
Thomas and staff were always friendly and available to help us. We learned so much about our Client’s situations. They are definitely very knowledgeable and confident of what they do to help our clients in our group home meet their needs.
In addition to an advance directive, your loved one should talk with his or her health care provider about a Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment (POLST). This is literally an order from a doctor detailing the life support treatments your relative wishes to receive or not receive. Think of it like a prescription.
