Guidelines for Emergency Physicians on the Interpretation of Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Therapy (POLST).

The ethical principle of respect for patient autonomy and the legal principle of patient self-determination, gives individuals the right to make their own health care decisions. Advance directives and Do-Not-Resuscitate documents were designed to allow people the opportunity to express their treatment preferences for situations when they cannot communicate those preferences themselves. Unfortunately, clinicians may not be able to honor those wishes because the documents are either unavailable or the wording is too vague or value based to apply to specific conditions encounters. As a result, emergency physicians may in good faith initiate or withhold treatments that are contrary to a patient’s wishes. 1