POLST Activities

April 25, 2013: Dr. Stuart Bagatell presented on "POLST and Patient Rights" at Abbey Delray, a senior living community in Delray Beach, Florida. Dr. Bagatell spoke to 30 residents and a group of nursing students.

To read a POLST paper by Helen Condry, MSN Candidate at the University of Central Florida, please click here: POLST - Condry.pdf.
April 15, 2013: The Tallahassee Democrat published an article by Dr. Ken Brummel-Smith and Professor Marshall Kapp as part of an ongoing series, "My View," of health-related articles by FSU College of Medicine faculty. The article discusses end-of-life care and the POLST form. To read the article, please click here: tallahasseedemocrat.fl.newsmemory.com. To view a video of Dr. Brummel-Smith discussing this topic, please click here: www.youtube.com/watch.
March 17, 2013: Professor Kapp was quoted in a Sun Sentinel article about the POLST form stating: "Because living wills aren't signed by a physician and often aren't medically explicit, health care providers sometimes are reluctant to honor them in an emergency, especially given growing legal liability concerns." To read the entire article, please click here.
January 30, 2013: Dr. Stuart Bagatell presented on POLST to the Coalition of Boynton West Resident Association (COBWRA). See photos below.

On November 8-9, 2012, the Health Law Institute at Hamline University and the Hamline Law Review presented a Symposium, "Legal, Medical, and Ethical Issues in Minnesota End-of-Life Care." Professor Kapp presented on POLST. This symposium examined problems arising at the intersection of law and end-of-life medicine. Regional and national experts explored issues and topics such as: legal and medical issues concerning the use of POLST orders, especially in Minnesota; institutional and community responses to medical futility disputes; and decision-making for “unbefriended” patients without surrogates.
September 20, 2012: Dr. Stuart Bagatell and Monsignor Gabriel Ghanoum presented at Mercy Hospital during Grand Rounds on "Enhancing a Moment of Grace: Clarifying Advanced Directives." The presentation took place from Noon-2pm at the 6th Floor Conference Center. Two CMEs were offered for physicians and 2 CEUs for nurses, occupational therapists, social workers, respiratory therapists, pharmacists, and dieticians.
On September 11, 2012, Dr. Stuart Bagatell presented on the POLST paradigm in Boca Raton, FL. Those in attendance included: lawyers, registered nurses, home health agencies, and hospice coordinators.
On August 8, 2012, Ken Brummel-Smith, MD, Tracy Christner, Stuart Bagatell, MD, and Professor Kapp presented a workshop, “Implementing the POLST (Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment) Paradigm in Florida Long-Term Care” at the Pioneer Network’s August, 2012 Conference, “Building a Bridge to a New Culture of Aging,” held in Jacksonville, FL. For more information, please visit: www.pioneernetwork.net/events/2012Conference.
On June 11, 2012 Dr. Stuart Bagatell, an active participant in the Florida POLST initiative, was interviewed by Mr. Scott Greenberg on Seaview Radio. To listen to the broadcast, please visit Dr. Bagatell's POLST Radio Interview and click on June 11.
On June 7, 2012, during the 35th Annual Health Law Professors Conference hosted by the American Society of Law, Medicine & Ethics at the University of Arizona in Tempe, AZ, Professor Kapp will present sessions on “The New Landscape of End-of-Life Decision-Making: How POLSTs Turn Health Care Decisions into Medical Orders” and “Innovations in Health Law Teaching: Law and Medical School Collaboration.” For more information, please visit: www.aslme.org/the-35th-annual-health-law-professors-conference.
Professor Kapp was interviewed about the Physicians Orders for Life Sustaining Treatment (POLST) form by 88.9 WFSU-FM radio (Tallahassee) on Thursday, April 19, 2012 from 11am - Noon. To listen to the program, please visit the link and scroll to "Perspectives: Final Wishes": news.wfsu.org/programs/perspectives-wfsu-889-wfsu-fm
On April 2, 2012, the Center held a meeting about POLST to bring together physicians, attorneys and other professionals interested in leading efforts of implementation in Florida. See photos below.

December 16, 2011: Thanks to our colleague Ken Brummel-Smith, M.D., Chair of the Department of Geriatrics at the Florida State University College of Medicine, for producing the POLST Draft Form for consideration in Florida. To be exceedingly clear, neither this draft form nor any other specific form has been formally reviewed and approved by any government agency or private organization or institution; it is not “the official Florida form” at this time. This Draft is being circulated specifically for review, consideration, and comments, as part of the evolving process of moving toward an “official Florida form” at some future point in time. Please send your comments and questions regarding this DRAFT form to Professor Kapp at marshall.kapp@med.fsu.edu for compilation and sharing, and please send copies to Dr. Brummel-Smith at ken.brummel-smith@med.fsu.edu.
On October 19, 2011, Debra Dobbs, Ph.D., School of Aging Studies, University of South Florida, was quoted in the Herald Tribune (Sarasota, FL News) in the article "End-of-Life Care: Extending life, or prolonging death?" The article may be found here.
On August 24, 2011 at the annual Florida Conference on Aging in St. Pete Beach, Professor Marshall Kapp presented with Ken Brummel-Smith, M.D. (Chair, and Professor, Department of Geriatrics, College of Medicine, Florida State University, Tallahassee), Stuart Bagatell, M.D. (Affiliated Assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine, University of Miami at Florida Atlantic University, Internal Medicine Residency, JFK Medical Center, Atlantis), and Tracy Christner, B.S. (Executive Director, Project GRACE, Clearwater) at a workshop, "Beyond Advance Directives: Implementing the POLST (Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment) Paradigm in Florida".