POLST
A medical order form covering more than resuscitation, signed by a clinician, meant to travel with the patient between home, hospital and care facility.
What it means
POLST stands for Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment. Like a DNR it is an order rather than a wish, but it covers a wider range of decisions — resuscitation, level of intervention, artificially administered nutrition.
It is intended for people who are seriously ill or frail, not for healthy adults. An advance directive is the document for everybody else.
The program goes by different names — POLST, MOLST, POST, MOST — and not every state has one.
Why it matters
It is designed for the moment a person moves between settings, which is exactly where instructions are most often lost.
Because it is completed with a clinician, it also forces a specific conversation about what this illness is likely to do, which an advance directive form on its own does not.
When you are likely to meet it
- When a parent has a serious illness and care is being planned.
- When moving between hospital, home and a care facility.
- When hospice is being considered.
How this varies by state
Whether a state operates a POLST-type program, what it is called, and whose signature it needs, are all set by state law and by the state's own program.