Benefits

Becoming a Community Partner of the Registry is a great way to give a value-added service to your clients, members, employees, customers or the general public. The good will generated from your participation in this service has a return on investment (for both your organization AND your personal peace of mind) that will exceed any other marketing tool. You have the opportunity to provide a valuable service, while gaining positive recurring annual exposure for your organization.

Being a Community Partner allows people to register their documents through you or your organization. Once registered, they are registered for life...regardless of whether or not you remain a Partner. Registration is the answer to the commonly asked question: "Where should I keep my advance directive?" In addition, the Registry sends each registrant an annual update letter, so that they can confirm that their advance directive has not been changed or revoked, and so that they can update their personal and emergency contact information. In this way, there will be no doubt as to whether the document still reflects their wishes. 

In addition to the Community Partner program, the Registry offers a Professional Registrar program.  Professional Registrars typically offer registration as part of an estate plan or comprehensive financial or retirement plan.  Unlike Community Partners, Professional Registrars are permitted to charge a registration assistance fee.  For more information about this program, click here.

You can provide your clients, customers and members with peace of mind, serenity and security...

• Peace of mind, knowing that your choices are secure and will be available to your family and doctors even if you become ill away from home.

• The serenity of knowing that you will be able to "speak" to your family and doctors through your advance directive about your personal philosophy and help them make the decisions you want without feeling guilt or remorse.

• The security of confidential, 24-hour access to your choices by hospitals and health care providers across the country.

The U.S. Living Will Registry^® has solved many of  the problems historically associated with advance directives.  Read the list of problems below, followed by a description of how the Registry has helped solve that particular problem.

Problem:  People don't know what advance directives are.

Solution:  The U.S. Living Will Registry^® helps educate the public about advance directives through this web site, its printed brochure "Will Your Health Care Choices Be Honored If You Become Incapacitated?", and its highly acclaimed "Living Will Fair" Guide that gives step-by-step instructions to health care providers on how to sponsor an educational community event about advance directives.

Problem:  People don't know how to prepare an advance directive.

Solution:  The U.S. Living Will Registry^® provides resources on this web site that will help people learn how to prepare an advance directive.  The Advance Directive Forms page gives background instructions on what you should consider in preparing the document, and also has links to sites containing the form specific for your state.

Problem:  People don't know where to store their advance directive, and don't routinely update it.

Solution:   People are commonly told to give copies of their advance directive to their family members, doctor and attorney.  But when the time comes to find the document, it is usually not available, or is so old that some may doubt its validity.  By definition, these documents are prepared well in advance of when they will be needed, and they are commonly put away for "safe keeping".  This makes them difficult to find during the stressful period when you're ill and the document needs to be found.  In addition, you may become ill while away from home, and most people do not carry their advance directive with them when they travel.   By registering your advance directive with the U.S. Living Will Registry^®, you can rest assured that hospitals and health care providers across the country will have access to your document no matter where or when it is needed.  

Even if your document is available, it may be outdated.  If you have not confirmed your choices recently, there could be a question as to whether the document still accurately reflects your wishes.  That is why the Registry sends you a letter every year to update your information.  Each year you have the opportunity to update telephone numbers and and addresses of your emergency contacts, and to confirm that the wishes you wrote in your advance directive are still valid.  This date of confirmation is listed on your wallet card, and is provided whenever your document is accessed.  In this way, there will be no doubt that your document is still a valid representation of your wishes.   
See the "How it Works" section for details.

Problem:  Family members are forced to make difficult, guilt-ridden end-of-life decisions for their loved ones when the advance directive cannot be found.

Solution:  Even when someone has prepared an advance directive, if it cannot be found when it is needed, family members are asked to make difficult decisions about the care of their loved one.  By registering your advance directive with the U.S. Living Will Registry^®, you will have the peace of mind of knowing that your family members will not be placed in such a situation.  Your choices will be available to your doctors and family members wherever and whenever needed.

Problem:  Health care providers have a difficult time managing all of the advance directives they receive from patients.

Solution:  Health care providers are required by law to ask their patients if they have an advance directive, and to place the document into the medical record.  Storing these documents and retrieving them has proved to be very difficult for providers.  How does the provider know that the advance directive on file is the most recent?  Which of the multiple charts on a particular patient contains the most current advance directive?  Who has the time to search through the medical records to find the old advance directive each time a patient is re-admitted?  What does a provider do with the advance directive when they convert their charts to electronic form, or microfiche? The U.S. Living Will Registry^® is the solution to all of these problems.  By using the Registry to store their advance directives, health care providers do not need to maintain their own storage and retrieval system.  They have 24-hour access to the Registry by telephone or Internet, and can retrieve a document in seconds.  Because the Registry contacts each registrant annually to make sure their advance directive has not changed, providers are assured that the documents they receive from the Registry are up to date.  Only health care providers have access to the documents, so privacy and confidentiality are always maintained.  With our exclusive Living Vault^® service, all of a facility's advance directives (even those currently on file in the record room) can be managed by the Registry.  This comprehensive system is an economical and efficient way for health care providers to manage their advance directives and comply with federal and state regulations.  It also enables Health Systems that have multiple hospitals, nursing facilities and hospices to easily share advance directives with other facilities in their system. 

STATE SPONSORED REGISTRIES:  The Registry is also an easy and cost-effective way for individual states to operate their own advance directive and/or organ donor registries.  Because the Registry's sophisticated systems allow for health care providers to access all documents registered in a particular state, a custom, state-specific system is readily and immediately available.  This obviates the need for individual states to start from scratch to build their own systems--a long and expensive process; and also avoids the budgetary expense of having state employees manage and maintain the system.  Contact us by e-mail or complete the interest form to see how the Registry can provide your state with a very cost-effective way to institute an advance directive and/or organ donor registry quickly and easily.