# POLST (Portable Medical Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment)

Source: https://onco.cc/terms/polst/  
OnCo record `polst` (Term). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

In the US, a POLST form turns the wishes of someone who is seriously ill or very frail into signed medical orders, so emergency teams know which treatments to give or not give. It is optional and is different from an advance directive.

## Summary

The National POLST Collaborative describes a POLST form as a portable medical order for patients who have a progressing serious illness or frailty due to ageing. It tells health care providers what the patient wants if they become unresponsive and what their goals of care are given their current medical condition; having one is completely optional.

POLST is distinct from an advance directive. In the Collaborative's comparison, an advance directive is a legal document for all adults that authorises someone to make decisions and states general wishes, while a POLST form is a signed medical order for anyone, regardless of age, who is seriously ill or frail, and carries more specific instructions that emergency personnel can follow. Programmes are run state by state; the Collaborative lists them.

## Fields

- Kind: Term
- Last checked: 2026-11-04
- Also known as: POLST form; Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment; Portable Medical Orders
- Tags: supportive; us

## Sources

- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physician_Orders_for_Life-Sustaining_Treatment
- National POLST Collaborative: https://polst.org/
- National POLST: about POLST: https://polst.org/about-polst/

## Connected records

- technologies: [Early integrated palliative care](https://onco.cc/technologies/palliative-care/), [Hospice and end-of-life care](https://onco.cc/technologies/hospice-end-of-life/)
- terms: [Advance care planning](https://onco.cc/terms/advance-care-planning/), [Five Wishes advance directive](https://onco.cc/terms/five-wishes/)

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JSON: https://onco.cc/api/v1/entities/polst.json