ADVault Announces a Way for Patients to Make Their Final Wishes Known

Even If You Are No Longer Able to Communicate

(DALLAS, TX) April 13, 2023 – ADVault, Inc., a Dallas company that specializes in advance care planning, announces the Make MyDirectives Your Directives™ initiative as part of the conversation about National Healthcare Decisions Day (NHDD) on April 16th.

Make MyDirectives Your Directives™ is an electronic initiative that places documenting an emergency health care plan squarely in the hands of the patient. This easily accessible process ensures patients’ wishes are implemented at end of life, while taking the burden of decision-making off the family’s shoulders during emotional and traumatic bedside vigils. MyDirectives.com gives a voice back to the patient—exactly where it belongs.

“Too often, I’ve seen loved ones wrestle with a patient’s end-of-life choices, typically, when a loved one is hospitalized, critically ill, or seriously injured and then unable to voice their care wishes. Emotions run high, as family and friends are already in a tense, confusing, and sometimes conflicted situation,” stated Dr. Dan Morhaim, Emergency Medicine physician and former Maryland legislator.

“Further, if the patient does not have an easily accessible advance care directive, the family and clinicians have no clear idea what end-of-life care the patient desires and must, in effect, ‘guess’ at what they want,” finished Morhaim.

Research reveals that less than 4% of advance care directives can be located in times of dire need; plus, just 25% of adults have established an end-of-life advance directive, also called a ‘living will.’ This means that when the person is in the ER or ICU, possibly incapacitated, loved ones face a near-impossible struggle to determine what happens to that patient.

A good advance care plan includes not only standing orders such as do not resuscitate (DNR), but also cover patient choices on organ donation, preferences for location of care which is usually at home and not in a hospital, whether they want hospice comfort care, and when to let them ‘go.’

MyDirectives.com, powered by ADVault, offers consumers an easy to use and free method to create a living will online on any device with an Internet connection. This is accomplished by simply creating an account, answering some questions on one’s health care goals, and naming a trusted family member or friend to be their healthcare agent. To finish the process, consumers electronically sign their plan which is then uploaded into the highly secure, Cloud storage database called the ADVault Exchange™. If they already have advance directives on paper, they can use the camera on a mobile device to scan and upload the documents into this secure Cloud.

Finally, and perhaps most important, the advance care directive may be accessed from any location, electronically by any selected, trust family or friend—giving the patient a voice, when they are medically unable to relay their own end plans. No more leaving living wills and medical powers of attorney locked away in file cabinets at home or in a safe deposit box.

Here's how the process works:

1. Visit MyDirectives.com to create an account.
2. Answer questions about health care priorities and preferences.
3. Pick family members and/or friends to make medical decisions when incapacitated.
4. Record and upload a video to explain more about choices made.
5. Review completed advance directives populated with all the answers to the questions.
6. Electronically sign the documents.
7. Automatically store signed advance directives in the secure ADVault Cloud.
8. Easily access patient wishes by loved ones and medical team anywhere, anytime, across the country, so it follows the patient.
9. Update patient decisions as circumstances change by logging back into the account, changing answers to the questions, and then re-signing documents so that the most current version is in the Cloud.

The basic tenet is, ‘create, update, and share; meaning anyone may share their final wishes with family members, friends, and caretakers.

MyDirectives.com is a helpful tool on National Healthcare Decision Day #NHDD on April 16th—to not only start the conversation about advance care planning in the event individuals are not able to speak for themselves due to severe health issues, but to ensure their most current wishes are always available. Learn more about the nationwide drive to ensure everyone has a voice in their care:

https://theconversationproject.org/nhdd/join-the-movement/

MyDirectives Solutions, powered by ADVault, were designed to give everyone a safe and secure voice before they suffer a serious fall, are otherwise injured, or through illness, face the end of life. It’s an invaluable gift to empower patient’s voice and unburden family members.