National Healthcare Decisions Day April 16, 2016 - Looking at Another Obstacle

Wantagh, NY, April 15, 2016 (Newswire.com) - With National Healthcare Decisions Day just days away, Ilene Corina, President of PULSE of NY, joined Michael Phillips of Saratoga in Albany, NY on April 12 at a press conference about having a healthcare proxy.

National Healthcare Decisions Day highlights the need for all of us to make arrangements in advance about who will make future medical decisions for us if we are incapable of doing so.

"If it doesn't get from the board room to the bedside, its only words."

Ilene Corina, President, PULSE of NY

What Michael Phillips wants people to know is that it’s not enough to have a healthcare proxy form completed and on file: clinicians must also honor it.

Phyllis Phillips, Michael’s mother, died two days before her 78th birthday, after suffering 27 days in a local hospital’s Critical Care Unit, bleeding from her esophagus, following valve replacement surgery for arterial stenosis. Phillips wants something positive to come from his mother’s tragic and unnecessary death.

Phillips’ mother was intubated and sedated, but Michael – who was clearly listed as her Health Proxy Agent – says he was not informed about his mother’s complications and the need for further intervention, nor was his permission sought on her behalf when his mother was so clearly not reasonably “able to make decisions for herself,” as described in New York’s Health Care Proxy Law. In this case, says Phillips, the medical teams clearly ignored their obligation to inform him as her Proxy, and to honor his decisions

Corina spoke at the press conference about shared decision-making and patient-centered care.  “If it doesn’t get from the board room to the bedside, its only words,” she told reporters.  Corina thanked Michael Phillips for his bravery in simply trying to save others the heartache he endured.  “This is another teaching moment,” she explained, referring to an upcoming PULSE of NY training event for patient advocates on Long Island.

Information about the upcoming patient advocacy training:

FAMILY CENTERED PATIENT ADVOCACY TRAINING
When: Wednesday, May 4 (part 1), May 11 (part 2) and May 18, 2016 (part 3)
Time: 5:30-8:30 PM
Place: 3601 Hempstead Tpk. Levittown NY 11756
Cost: $125.00 per person. Register and attend in a group of 3 or more and pay only $75.00 per person. ($45 per person if it's a refresher, i.e., retaking the course, if space is available.)

Click here to register - classes are small so please register early.

Source: PULSE of NY