WellStar Honors Patients' Rights and Wishes Through New POLST

On Nov. 8, WellStar rolled out an updated Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment (POLST) – a pink, user-friendly form that will ensure patients’ treatment wishes regarding end-of-life care are honored and they are provided only the care they want. Decisions on end-of-life care include CPR, antibiotics, IV fluids, feeding tubes, etc.

The ethics committee at each facility will assist in coordinating the rollout of the new POLST form which will replace the current goldenrod form that’s been used by WellStar for more than five year. This new POLST form should be utilized and any unused goldenrod forms should be destroyed.


POLST Objectives

1. Every patient who has a chronic progressive disease or is at the end-of-life should have a POLST.
2. All WellStar team members involved in the clinical care of our patients should encourage physicians to ensure that all patients with an Advanced Directive (AD) have a POLST.

Facts about POLST

• POLST is a one-page physician order that summarizes an AD. An AD is not an order; it is an expression of a patient’s wishes.
• Because POLST is an order, EMS technicians and other medical professionals may honor it.
• POLST is a transferable document that should be sent home with the patient or to other care facilities.

If you have any questions, please contact Richard Cohen, M.D., at rwcmd@mindspring.com or Sara Patrick at sarah.patrick@wellstar.org.