Washington State Medical Association Foundation for Health Care Improvement

Honoring Choices Pacific Northwest

Honoring Choices Pacific Northwest (Honoring Choices PNW) is an unprecedented, statewide advance care planning initiative to inspire early conversations about the type of care people want if faced with a life-threatening illness. Honoring Choices PNW will provide physicians, the groups or hospitals they work in, and other healthcare providers with the necessary training and resources to discuss, record and honor patients’ wishes at the end of their lives. Patients will also get the tools to make informed choices and talk to their families and providers about care in the last chapters of life.

While other states have implemented similar programs, none have undertaken an advance care planning initiative on the scale envisioned by WSMA. Honoring Choices PNW aims for universal adoption across the state by physicians and their practices as well as other members of the care team and health systems, over the next six years. Its success will dramatically change the medical landscape, improving care of those with life threatening illnesses and impact the quality of care, especially in the last two years of life.