• Reduction of unwanted hospitalizations
and length of stays during the last six
months of a person’s life.7
• Reduction of costs of care in the last two
years of life due to the elimination of
unwanted treatment.8
• Advance care planning becomes a part
of a person’s lifespan, resulting in timely
decisions appropriate to the stage of
illness and acknowledges goals and values
may change over time.9
• Channels of communication between
persons and their loved ones are opened,
allowing for the strengthening of
relationships for ongoing discussion and
decision-making. 10
Without the conversation and without the
healthcare directive, it is exceedingly difficult
to know what kind of care a person would
want should they become unable to speak for
themselves. The work those of you in estate
planning do is vitally important to the end-
of-life care healthcare providers give.
As professionals who often engage
your clients in advance care planning
conversations, we invite you to come and
see what we are doing on the healthcare
side of those conversations. We are using
evidence-based practices around when and
how to have these conversations so the
person creating the healthcare directive
can articulate their own goals, values, and
preferences for treatment with greater
knowledge of expected outcomes related to
their treatment choices, so the choices they
make line up with their individual goals and
values. These evidence-based practices are
available for you, too.
Because of the importance of the work you
are doing in this, we invite you and your
staff to some upcoming CLE opportunities,
where you can hone your conversation skills
and advance your skills in transferring an
individual’s goals, values, and preferences to
their written plan. This is the course taught
by Respecting Choices® in La Crosse, Wis.,
and throughout the Midwest and across
the nation by healthcare systems and the
Honoring Choices® programs.
You will leave the day with your skills
enhanced and a greater understanding of the
healthcare choices and the results of those
choices so as you work with your clients; they
will have a better idea of what their choices
are and which choices line up with their own
goals, values, and preferences.
These Advance Care Planning Facilitator
trainings are offered throughout the year
at Sanford Health in Bismarck and Fargo,
as well as throughout the state through
Honoring Choices North Dakota. CLEs
are available. For more information or to
register for an upcoming training, contact
the Sanford Bismarck ACP office at acp.
[email protected] or Honoring
Choices ND at www.honoringchoicesnd.org
for a list of upcoming class dates.
If you are unable to commit the time to
attend a full-day workshop, we refer you to
the Healthcare Directive that healthcare
providers throughout the Midwest prefer. It
is located at https://www.honoringchoicesnd.
org/directives/. Additionally, there are
a number of resources available on the
Honoring Choices ND website noted
above, as well as the Honoring Choices MN
website at https://www.honoringchoices.org/.
We in the healthcare industry look forward
to collaborating with you in the legal field in
this important community-enhancing work
of Advance Care Planning. Together, we can
“Do Great Things.”
1. Return on Investment Implementation of Respecting
Choices® Person-Centered Care Planning.
(2019). Respecting Choices® A Division of C-TAC
Innovations.
2. ibid.
3. ibid.
4. Detering, K.M., Hancock, A.D., Reade, M.C., &
Silvester, W. (2010). The impact of advance care
planning on end-of-life care in elderly patients:
Randomized controlled trial. BMJ, 340, c1345.
5. Wright, A.A., Zhang, B., Ray, A., Mack, J. W., Trice,
E., Balboi, T., Mitchell, S.L. … Prigerson, H.G. (2008).
Associations between end-of-life discussions, patient
mental health, medical care near death, and caregiver
bereavement adjustment. JAMA: The Journal of the
American Medical Association, 300(14), 1665-1673.
6. Detering, K.M., Hancock, A.D., Reade, M.C., &
Silvester, W. (2010). The impact of advance care
planning on end-of-life care in elderly patients:
Randomized controlled trial. BMJ, 340, c1345.
7. 2010 Dartmouth Atlas Study Methodology. As quoted
in Transforming Healthcare: Advance Care Planning.
Gunderson Health System. 01/2015.
8. ibid.
9. Return on Investment Implementation of Respecting
Choices® Person-Centered Care Planning.
(2019). Respecting Choices® A Division of C-TAC
Innovations.
10. Briggs, L. (2012). Helping individuals make informed
healthcare decisions: The role of the advance care
planning facilitator. In B.J. Hammes (Ed.), Having Your
Own Say: Getting the Right Care When It Matters the
Most (pp. 23-40). Washington DC: CHT Press.
[email protected]
FALL 2019
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