How to Make Sure Your Medical Wishes Are Known and Honored!

Did you know that even if you have completed your Living Will and other Advance Directives, you may not have your wishes heard? The purpose of Advance Directives is to ensure that your medical wishes are known and respected and that someone has the legal authority to act on your behalf if you cannot direct your own medical care. Yet, despite your efforts to plan for these situations, various issues regarding the documents are all too common.

The issue most often encountered is getting access to those directives when needed. This became all too real in February 2022 when Amy's uncle ended up in the hospital. Even though he had a Health Care Power of Attorney, it still took 5 days before the family was contacted about his hospitalization because Amy's uncle was unconscious and unable to communicate. He could not tell the hospital he had directives in place.

What good does it do to have these directives in place if no one knows about it? What can you do if you know the person has medical directives but you don't know where they are or you can't get to them (in a safe deposit box, for example)? How can you make sure the situation with Amy's uncle doesn't happen to you?

The answer is DocuBank! DocuBank is an online document storage system that allows you to retain copies of your medical directives and other important legal documents in one cloud-based location. The DocuBank system helps to make sure that you and your loved ones will have access to these key documents when needed most. DocuBank can transmit your advance medical directives to a hospital instantly, 24 hours a day / 7 days a week, anywhere in the world.

A DocuBank membership includes the following:

	A plastic, wallet-sized, personalized DocuBank card that makes critical medical information, like health conditions, allergies, and your #1 emergency contact, instantly available to healthcare providers. Your card is also linked to your medical directives so that doctors can get quick access to these critical healthcare documents.
A place to list your medications (name, dosage, and frequency) and vaccine history so that medical staff can better assess your medical situation and evaluate treatment options, which is critical in a medical emergency. And, you can add or updated this information easily and conveniently online.
	An encrypted online “SAFE” to store digital copies of your legal documents, health care directives, insurance paperwork, real estate deeds, financial documents, tax information, and other important records or documents you may want your loved ones to have access to in an emergency. Documents stored in your SAFE are not attached to your DocuBank card, so you do not need to worry about the hospital accidentally being set a copy of your Will! Setting up the SAFE is simple. Create a secure password. Then, upload your documents. Easy peasy! You can also create SAFEShare Users for friends and family and professionals (like CPAs or attorneys) you work with so they can view only the files you wish them to see.

DocuBank also offers specialized memberships for minor children, college students, and special needs adults who may have a different set of needs. You can also request additional cards if you need them (perhaps you want to give one to your child's babysitter, one to the day care facility, and another one to the grandparents). All members of the family can be protected with DocuBank.

By partnering with DocuBank, we can give you the assurance that your healthcare choices will be made known and honored! For more details, visit www.docubank.com, or contact us to discuss enrollment.

Phone: (919) 678-5761 Email: admin@leavealegacync.com