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Advance Directive for Health Care Form - Florida
A Florida Advance Directive is a set of written legal instructions regarding an individual's wishes and preferences for medical care that become effective in the events when they are unable to make decisions for themselves. If a patient does not have their health care wishes specified, these decisions can be placed in the hands of family members, doctors, or even judges, who may know very little about what the patient prefers. Download a ready-made directive through the link below or create your own form with our form builder.
There is a difference between an Advance Directive for Health Care and a Living Will in Florida. The former comes into force in all cases when an individual is too ill to communicate or unconscious. The latter is a specific type of directive that takes effect when a patient is terminally ill and only lists decisions about life-sustaining medical procedures.
A Florida Advance Directive is regulated by Chapter 765 of Florida Statutes . The individual must certify that they are emotionally and mentally competent before signing the document in the presence of at least two (2) witnesses.
What Is a Florida Advance Directive?
An Advance Directive is a document in which an individual states their preferences regarding health care procedures that become effective when they are no longer able to make decisions for themselves. The contents can be updated and changed as often as the individual wishes.
An Advance Directive for health care includes two parts in total:
- A Living Will - a specific type of Advance Directive which can also be used on its own - is a signed and witnessed document called a "declaration" or "directive" with instructions for an attending physician to withhold or withdraw certain medical interventions once the signer is no longer able to verbally make decisions about medical treatment.
- A Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care - otherwise known as a Health Care Proxy - is a notarized document in which the signer designates an agent to make healthcare-related decisions on their behalf.
How to Write an Advance Directive in Florida?
Advance Care planning is a four-step process:
STEP 1 - Electing an agent to make health care decisions on the patient's behalf.
STEP 2 - Expressing wishes about any limitations in medical treatment - CPR, breathing machines, feeding tubes, and antibiotics.
STEP 3 - Making decisions related to organ and tissue donation and stating preferences regarding the funeral, burial and the disposition of remains.
STEP 4 - Signing, dating and witnessing the form according to the applicable Florida law.
Copies of the completed form should be handed out to the agent, the physician, the patient's family, and the health care facility.
Download Advance Directive for Health Care Form - Florida
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