Washington State May Digitize Advance Directives For EHR Systems

The Washington State Department of Health (DOH) is exploring options to digitize the state’s Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment (POLST) form for use in electronic health record (EHR) systems. According to a recent request for information (RFI DOH25-009C), the state anticipates that the digitized POLST form could be available through an interoperable web portal through which authorized individuals could digitally complete and submit POLST forms to a state-administered registry for advance directive documents.

The current POLST form is a “portable” physician order form that describes and summarizes the individual’s preferences about life-sustaining treatment in . . .