For Individuals
What is Health Care Planning?
Health care planning, also known as advance care planning (ACP) is an ongoing process that supports individuals and their family individuals in understanding, and sharing their values, goals and preferences for future medical care.
These care decisions are then formally documented within an advance directive (AD), a legal document that ensures one’s care wishes are followed.
With Iris, the comprehensive healthcare planning process is led by a skilled healthcare facilitator who helps you:
- Understand your future medical care options.
- Identify the options that are in line with your hopes and wishes.
- Discuss your choices and preferences with your loved ones and care team.
- Write a plan that meets your needs, goals and values.
- Do all of this without having to leave your home by phone or video conference.
People living with serious illnesses don't just struggle with their disease. In addition…
Benefits of Healthcare Planning
Reduce Family Burden
Your health care planning discussions and your written advance directives make your preferences clear to everyone on your team, lifting the burden from your family members, doctors and hospital staff if you’re ever unable to discuss your wishes during treatment.
Everybody’s on the same page, even if you update or change your preferences. We’ll make sure to update your advance directives and then send an updated copy to everyone.
Express Goals and Preferences
The advance directives and other documents you create through our health care planning process remove the confusion and puts you in control of your care, so you get the treatments that align with your goals and preferences.
Your written plan also protects you and your family from the stress and expense of treatments that you don’t want.
Make Important Decisions
Health care planning with an Iris facilitator involves conversations with you and your family members about important issues like your:
- treatment options
- quality-of-life goals
- preferences for care
- who would speak for you in an emergency
By having these discussions now, you can make informed decisions about your future care and get expert help completing your documents.
Expert Guidance to Create Your Plan
Iris' skilled and licensed health care health care planning experts can help you consider and answer questions that shape the quality and kind of care you receive. They will help you answer questions such as:
- What does living well mean to you?
- Will your health care choices help you reach your goals for living well?
- What would you want your doctors to do?
- Does your family know your health care goals and how to help you achieve them?
Our health care planning experts provide you and your family with in-depth conversations with a high level of detail, personalization and education to create a tailored health care plan that reflects your individual goals and preferences for future care.
Testimonials
“Planning for my medical care in the future lifted a big burden off my kids. I could see the relief in their faces after we finished the process.”
“Our facilitator really opened up a conversation within the family. We came into this with many questions and left feeling like it was the best discussion about my health that we’d ever had.”
“Healthcare planning helped me understand what I want out of my healthcare. It also opened my eyes to things I never knew I should think about before these decisions.”