CHRISTUS creates keystone document to ease advance care planning

By LISA EISENHAUER

CHRISTUS Health has created a onepage guide to help patients figure out where they are in the process of advance care planning and point them to resources so they can reach their goals.

Steven Squires, the system’s vice president of ethics, led the work that resulted in the keystone document called “Planning Your Path | Wishes and Health Care.” He wants the succinct reference to make it easier for care providers and patients to have oftendifficult conversations around planning for care in the event of a sudden illness or as the end of life nears.

“I hope that more people will start talking about what is often a taboo topic, I think, in American culture,” Squires says.

The document was the product of a “structured exercise” undertaken by CHRISTUS’ palliative care advisory council to figure out the best method the system could adopt to facilitate advance care

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