An advance health care directive is a document that allows a person to designate what health care they wish to receive and who can make medical decisions for them in the case that they are incapacitated.  Alaska Statute 13.52.010 provides that anyone may fill out an advance health care directive, but it does not provide a system to store and access these important documents.

Medical emergencies can occur at any place at any time.  A person may be on vacation and not have a copy of their advance health care directive with them, or family members may simply be too distraught to remember or find a copy of the directive.  In cases like these, medical professionals and family members need an effective tool to locate and access information on a patient’s health care wishes.

House Bill 71 would establish a voluntary registry of advance health care directives for the State of Alaska.  The registry would be strictly voluntary—no person would ever be required to submit his or her advance health care directive to the registry, and directives not filed with the registry would remain every bit as valid.  Other features of the registry include:

• Hospitals and similar health care facilities would have 24-hour online access to their patients’ records in case of emergencies.
• A person or his or her agent, guardian or surrogate would be able to request copies of their directive.
• The Department of Health and Social Services would be able to charge modest fees to pay for administrative costs of the registry.
• All advance health care directives in the registry would be confidential.
• An individual could update or remove his or her advance health care directive from the registry at any time.

A number of other states already use an advance health care directive registry to ensure that patients’ wishes are available to guide the decisions of doctors and loved ones during medical emergencies.