AZ HIE Launches Website to Guide Advance Directives Registration

Health Current, Arizona’s health information exchange (HIE), has announced the launch of an online resource to accompany the new statewide advance directives registry.

The Arizona Healthcare Directives Registry (AzHDR), launched in the fall of 2021, compiles living wills, healthcare power of attorney forms, and pre-hospital medical care directives for patients across the state so that providers can access patients’ end-of-life wishes.

The new website, AzHDR.org, is designed to help providers, professionals who support end-of-life (EOL) decision-making, and consumers connect to the registry and find information about advance directives.

AzHDR.org features articles, blogs, videos, tools, and marketing materials that cover topics such as starting difficult conversations about EOL care. The website also includes instructions on registering patient EOL wishes within the registry.

Health Current became the new home for the AzHDR after 2019 legislation prompted the transition of the registry from the Secretary of State’s office to the Arizona HIE in efforts to improve provider access to advance directives.

“We are honored to be part of this important service that helps eliminate the barriers of relaying what healthcare and treatment decisions should be made if you are unable to communicate these wishes,” Melissa Kotrys, CEO of Contexture, the umbrella organization of Health Current, noted in a public statement.

“The new Arizona Healthcare Directives Registry, along with its associated website, AzHDR.org, will have a positive impact on millions of lives across Arizona,” Kotrys added.

Health Current collaborated with more than 30 EOL industry leaders from across the state to develop the new registry and website.

“Our shared mission is to enhance the way we live by fundamentally changing the way we talk about death,” said Sarah Ascher, associate vice president of the United Way of Tucson and Southern Arizona End of Life Care Partnership. “The AzHDR and Health Current are key to our work in helping to break down silos to ensure people receive the care they desire at the end of life.”