Monday, October 18, 2010

Do you have medical power of attorney for your grown college-aged child?

Judy Laquidara just brought up the necessity for college-aged young adults to have a medical power of attorney that allows their parents or other trusted loved ones to speak to medical caregivers on their behalf should they become incapacitated. Without one, we could not even find out information on Britta were to be in a car accident and hospitalized, for example.


Get your kids a medical power of attorney form, ask them to fill it out, and get it notarized. It's not set in stone, they can change it any time they want, but it's something at least.


Gundersen Lutheran, one of our two  local hospital systems, has this boilerplate MPOA which is sufficient for Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin:
In addition, the National Right to Life Committee has information on setting one up for whatever state you live in. It would make sense to have one that satisfies the requirements both of your home state and the state in which your college-aged child is living at present.

2 comments:

Carol Reese said...

Also, should you ever go stay with grandchildren, or they come to visit you, make sure their parents leave or send a signed statement that you can give permission for them to be treated. I don't know if these need to be notarized, but you need something.

We recently stayed a week with our granddaughter while her mother was out of town, and she needed to see a physician. They hadn't yet established a relationship with a PCP, so they had to call DD, who was in a meeting, to get permission to treat DGD. This was not an emergency, as if there's bleeding or threat to life, they can treat anyway but....

VJ said...

Maria, I love the new page format. I've subscribed and hope to be able to keep up with you on here now. :0)