Glossary of Important Terms
Advance Directive – A directive (Health Care Directive) is a written set of instructions expressing someone’s wishes for medical treatment. It may contain a health care power of attorney, living will or both. (See definitions for health care power of attorney and living will below.)
Capacity– The ability:
- to understand potential benefits, risks, and alternatives of a decision
- to make a decision
- to communicate the decision.
If unable to perform any of above, the patient is incompetent or lacking capacity
Competence – See Capacity
Do Not Resuscitate (DNR) Order - A medical order that instructs health care providers not to do cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) if breathing stops or if the heart stops beating. A DNR order allows a person to choose before an emergency occurs if they want CPR. It is a decision only about CPR. It does not affect other treatments, such as pain medicine, medicines, or nutrition.
End-Stage Medical Condition– An incurable and irreversible medical condition in an advanced state that will result in death, despite the provision of medical treatment. No maximum life-expectancy is included in definition.
Guardian – A person appointed by the court to make certain decisions on behalf of another individual who has been determined by the court to be incapacitated and unable to make those decisions.
Health Care Agent – A Health Care Agent is a person appointed by another and designated in a health care power of attorney to make to make that person’s health care decisions. The person who is selected to serve as agent should be someone who has an understanding of the person’s beliefs and values, and is able to interpret instructions and make decisions. An agent can authorize, withhold or withdraw medical treatment.
Health Care Directive – See Advance Directive
Health Care Power of Attorney – A written document in which a person appoints another to serve as his agent and to make health care decisions.
Health Care Representative – Someone designated by a patient or authorized by default under Pennsylvania law to make health care decisions. The process is less formal than the appointment of a health care agent in a health care power of attorney.
Hospice Care – Medical, psychological, and spiritual support provided as a patient approaches end of life. Patients are considered to have less than six months of remaining life. The goal is to control pain and other symptoms to help people have peace, comfort, and dignity. Services are also provided to support a patient's family during the illness and in bereavement.
Incapacitated – Lacking the ability:
- to understand potential benefits, risks, and alternatives of a decision;
- to make a decision;
- to communicate the decision.
Incompetent – See Incapacitated
Life-Sustaining Treatment – Medical treatment that prolongs the process of dying for a person with an end-state medical condition or maintains an individual in a state of permanent unconsciousness.
Living Will – A written statement of a person’s personal choices regarding life-sustaining treatment and other end of life care. A living will becomes effective when a patient is incompetent and has an end stage medical condition or is permanently unconscious.
Palliative Care –Specialized medical care for people with serious illnesses that focuses on providing patients with relief from the symptoms, pain, and stress of a serious illness. The goal is to improve quality of life for both the patient and the family. It is appropriate at any age and at any stage in a serious illness and can be provided along with curative treatment.
Permanently Unconscious – Total and irreversible loss of consciousness and capacity for interaction with the environment. Irreversible vegetative state or irreversible coma.
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