For people who don't have an advance care directive, this quick form could be the next best thing
“The COVID-19 pandemic ‘is helping us as a people to think about what matters most to us,’ said Dr. Matthew Gonzales, chief medical information officer at Providence St. Joseph Health's Institute for Human Caring in Gardena, California. ‘To me that is essentially what advance medical planning is all about.’”
The Institute for Human Caring developed a "trusted decision maker" form with only two questions as an easier alternative to a formal advance directive. It is not a legal document, so no witnesses or notary is needed. “The trusted decision maker form ‘is a good-faith effort to elicit and record people's choices for who speaks for them and their general preferences for care,’ Dr. Ira Byock, founder and chief medical officer of the Institute for Human Caring, said. ‘The best practice is for all adult patients to have an advance directive on file, but when that's not possible the trusted decision maker form is the next best thing.’"