What To Know About The Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment (POLST) Form

The Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment (POLST) form is a tool for end-of-life planning. The form ensures that a patient's treatment wishes are known and will be followed by health care professionals during a medical crisis, when the patient cannot speak for themselves.

An advance directive is a direction from the patient, not a medical order. In contrast, a POLST form consists of a set of medical orders that applies to a limited population of patients and addresses a limited number of critical medical decisions. You can find the bill details below and more information about the POLST form on the Illinois Department of Public Health website.

Advance Directive Registry. Senate Bill 2644 (Morrison, D-Deerfield; Delgado, D-Chicago) requires the Office of the Illinois Secretary of State to create an electronic registry, known as the Advance Directive Registry, through which Illinois residents may deposit a Department of Public Health Uniform Practitioner Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment (POLST) form. It provides that information in the registry is to be made available electronically to emergency medical services personnel and hospital administrators. It also provides that hospital administrators shall, as appropriate for their respective hospital, provide access to information in the registry to hospital health care providers and health care professionals. The bill specifies that persons may rely on information obtained from the registry as an accurate copy of the documents filed with it. The ISBA Health Care Section Council created the concept for the registry in 2017. Drop date August 20, 2024; effective January 1, 2025.