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ADVANCED DIRECTIVES- FREE SERVICE AT RAMC
Name: ADVANCED DIRECTIVES- FREE SERVICE AT RAMCDate: December 4, 2025Time: 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM CST
Event Description:ADVANCE DIRECTIVES – FREE SERVICE AT REEDSBURG AREA MEDICAL CENTER
An Advance Directive is a legal written document that outlines your wishes for medical treatment if you are not able to make decisions yourself. It also allows you to appoint a person, often called a healthcare power of attorney or agent, to make healthcare decisions on your behalf.
Having an Advance Directive is even more important in Wisconsin, because Wisconsin is not a "next-of-kin" state. Wisconsin law does not allow family members to make decisions for incapacitated family members. As a general rule, spouses are not allowed to make decisions for each other, and parents are not able to make decisions for their adult children, and vice versa. If an adult has not designated someone to be their healthcare agent (such as in an Advance Directive), their loved one would have to go through the court system to pursue becoming a legal guardian for them. This can be a long and sometimes costly process.
Completing an Advance Directive is a process that staff at Reedsburg Area Medical Center can help you accomplish, and it costs nothing. It requires a little bit of time, and some conversations with your loved ones.
Some benefits to completing an Advance Directive include:
- It provides a way for you to make your preferences known when you cannot communicate them yourself.
- It gives your loved ones and medical team clear guidance on your medical preferences.
- It allows you to make important choices about your medical care in advance.
- Naming a healthcare agent lets you know someone you trust and have had conversations with will be in charge of making your healthcare decisions.
RAMC offers this service free of charge! Some of our upcoming openings for appointments are on Thursdays and held on the medical campus:
November 6, 10-11am
November 20, 3-4pm
December 4, 10-11am
December 18, 3-4pm
Please call us at 608-524-6487 to schedule an appointment with one of our qualified Advance Directive Facilitators. If the above dates/times do not work for you, please let us know and we will do our very best to find something that works best for you.