Thank you to everyone who was able to participate in the Illinois POLST Taskforce meeting last week. We understand that some people were unable to connect, and we apologize. We have identified the issue to ensure it won’t happen again.

Following is as recap from the meeting and next steps that were identified. If you would like to access the slides from the presentation, please click here.

1)The Illinois POLST form is being updated by IDPH. Once it has been revised, the Illinois POLST taskforce will provide a link to the updated form.

2)POLST Illinois activities in the past year

a)Worked with ISMS to pass legislation removing “DNR” form the title of the form.

b)Worked with EMS state education committee representative to develop a slide that will be available to all EMS regions once the form revision is completed

c)Materials revised/added to the POLSTIL.org website

d)Represented POLST Illinois with exhibits at Illinois Public Health Association and Leading Age annual meeting

e)Local co-host of first open national meeting of the National POLST Paradigm

f)Webinar with ISMS on advance directives

3)POLST Illinois can only succeed with the support of organizations and people throughout the state. With your help, the following workgroups can be re-established.

a)Education/Training

i)We need to identify people/organizations interested in providing education to consumers and healthcare organizations throughout the state.

ii)To ensure consistent messaging and training throughout the state,regions will be developed. Please contact us if you are interested in participating in one of these regional groups.

b)Sustainability/Funding

i)Develop an advisory board – we need to identify people with resources and connections to advance POLST in Illinois.

ii)Find a home for POLST

c)Communications

i)Utilize social media to promote POLST

ii)Identify personal success stories that will compel the media to cover POLST

d)Benchmarks and Quality

i)A baseline identifying the use of POLST throughout the state is necessary. An ongoing commitment to quality in the use of POLST is necessary.

e)Registry

i)While Illinois isn’t ready to implement an electronic registry today, the taskforce does wants to be prepared with the state is ready

Next Steps:

  • If you are interested in being involved, please share your area of interest. Many of you are doing POLST work in the context of you workplace - if we can consolidate our efforts we can make more of an impact (any of the workgroups identified above, including participation in a regional group)
  • Please suggest people who might be strong supporters in advancing POLST for the advisory board, or for workgroups.
  • Individual meetings for the workgroups will be scheduled, once groups have been formed.

POLST Illinois can only advance with the support of people and organizations working together throughout the state. Remember: we are all volunteers. With a cohesive effort, POLST Illinois can have a strong program!