Arbitration Board Living Will
Both doctors and relatives can turn to the Advance Will Arbitration Board if there are any conflicts over the interpretation of an advance directive. The arbitration board has been operated by the German Foundation for Patient Protection since June 2009 . According to the foundation, no fees should be charged for this service.
Services of the arbitration board
In the event of a dispute, employees of the German Foundation for Patient Protection state that they check every living will within two working days. In this way, threatening legal disputes are to be avoided if the attending physician and the supervisor or authorized representative disagree about the interpretation of an order. This can happen, for example, if an advance directive is not formulated precisely enough: According to the Advance Disposal Act passed by the German Bundestag on June 18, 2009, an advance directive must relate to certain examinations of the state of health, medical treatment or medical interventions and "to the specific living and Apply treatment situation ”so that it can be validated. Practitioners assume that living wills that are issued without advice rarely meet these criteria. The German Foundation for Patient Protection has therefore set up the arbitration board.
In order to resolve possible conflicts, the foundation offers help, from telephone advice to the preparation of expert opinions and on-site mediation.
Other help
At some hospitals there are so-called ethics consultations, which, among other things, are also active in the case of ambiguous advance directives. In dialogue with doctors, nurses and relatives, solutions should be found that are in the interests of the patient who is incapable of consent .
Assistance in drafting advance directives
In the explanatory memorandum to the Living Will Act, it is recommended to seek expert advice when drafting an advance directive so as not to run the risk that inaccurate wording can render the disposition ineffective. There are various offices in Germany that help with the drafting of advance directives. One of them is the German Foundation for Patient Protection. The members of their support association can have individual living wills drawn up free of charge that meet the requirements of the law. According to the Foundation, 11,700 counseling sessions were held in 2012.
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- ↑ a b c German Foundation for Patient Protection - Arbitration Board for Living Wills. (No longer available online.) In: stiftung-patientenschutz.de. Archived from the original on December 6, 2013 ; accessed on October 3, 2018 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ German Civil Code (BGB) § 1901a living will
- ↑ Doctors newspaper of July 1, 2009, p. 14: "Living will - a case for the family doctor"
- ↑ Overview of institutions with implemented ethical advice. In: ethikkomitee.de. Retrieved October 3, 2018 .
- ^ German Bundestag printed matter 16/8442 16th electoral term. Draft of a third law amending care law. (PDF; 616 kB) In: dip21.bundestag.de. March 6, 2008, p. 14 , accessed October 3, 2018 .
- ↑ Patient advocates help 28,900 times in 2012. Press release. In: stiftung-patientenschutz.de. January 24, 2013, accessed October 3, 2018 .
