DokuDocsdokudocs.com- Health care surrogate
- Names the person who makes medical decisions if your parent can't.
- Living will
- States your parent's wishes about life-prolonging treatment at the end of life.
- Signing rules
- Two adult witnesses. At least one can't be a spouse or blood relative. No notary required.
- Cost
- Free with Florida's statutory sample forms; often bundled by attorneys with a power of attorney.
- Florida law
- Chapter 765, Florida Statutes
Picture the call: your mother has fallen, she's in the emergency room in Sarasota, and you're three hours away in Orlando. The doctor needs someone to agree to surgery. Your mother is confused from the fall and the pain medicine. Who gets to say yes?
In Florida, the answer is whoever she named in a designation of health care surrogate. If she never signed one, Florida law has a fallback list, which usually works but sometimes puts siblings in the awkward position of outvoting each other in a hospital hallway.
Two documents handle this, and they are among the easiest estate planning papers to complete.
The two documents, side by side
| Health care surrogate | Living will | |
|---|---|---|
| What it does | Names a person to make medical decisions | Records your parent's wishes about life-prolonging treatment |
| When it applies | Whenever your parent can't decide for themselves (or right away, if they choose) | Only at the end of life: a terminal condition, end-stage condition or persistent vegetative state |
| Who uses it | The surrogate, working with doctors | Doctors and the surrogate, as guidance |
| Can it be combined? | Yes. Many Florida forms put both on the same few pages. |
A health care surrogate covers far more situations. Think of a hip replacement, a stroke with temporary confusion, a decision about rehab versus going home. The living will is narrower. It speaks to the hardest question, whether to continue treatments like feeding tubes or ventilators when there's no reasonable chance of recovery.
How to sign them correctly
Florida's rules are short, but each one matters:
- Your parent signs in front of two adult witnesses. If your parent physically can't sign, they can direct someone else to sign their name in front of the witnesses.
- At least one witness is not a spouse or blood relative. A neighbor, a friend from church, or staff at a lawyer's office all work.
- The surrogate is not a witness. If you're being named, you can't also witness it.
- Give the surrogate a copy. Florida law expects the surrogate to receive an exact copy of the designation.
No notary is required for either document. Florida's statutes include sample forms for both, and many hospitals, senior centers and Area Agencies on Aging hand them out for free.
Check the "immediate authority" box By default, a Florida surrogate only steps in after a doctor determines your parent can't make decisions. Your parent can choose instead to let the surrogate receive health information and act right away, even while they're still capable. For a parent who wants help managing appointments and portal messages, that option saves a lot of "we can't talk to you without authorization" phone calls.
Picking the surrogate
The right surrogate isn't necessarily the oldest child or the one who's a nurse. It's the person who will:
- Answer the phone at odd hours and get to the hospital
- Follow your parent's wishes even if they'd personally choose differently
- Stay calm when siblings disagree
Name an alternate surrogate too. Florida only lets an alternate step in if the document names one specifically, and it's common for the first choice to be traveling, sick or simply unreachable when a decision comes up.
What happens if there's no surrogate
If your parent never named anyone, Florida lets doctors turn to a proxy in a set order of priority. Broadly, that order is a court-appointed guardian, then a spouse, then the majority of adult children who are reasonably available, then a parent, then the majority of adult siblings, then other close relatives and close friends, and as a last resort a clinical social worker chosen by the hospital's ethics committee.
Notice the phrase "majority of adult children." If you have two siblings and you disagree about a feeding tube, the decision becomes a vote. If you have one sibling and you split, nobody has a majority. That is exactly the situation a signed designation avoids.
Talking with your parent about it
Many parents put this off because it feels like planning their own death. A few approaches that tend to work better than "we need to talk about your end-of-life wishes":
- Start with the surrogate, not the living will. "If you ever have surgery and you're groggy afterward, who do you want the doctors to talk to?" is an easy question.
- Use a recent event. A friend's hospitalization or a news story is a natural opening.
- Ask what they'd want, then write it down. Your parent can add written instructions to the surrogate form, such as wanting to die at home, or wanting every treatment tried.
Living will versus DNR versus POLST
These get confused constantly, including by family members in the middle of a crisis.
- Living will: your parent's own statement of wishes. It guides doctors but isn't a medical order.
- DNRO (Do Not Resuscitate Order): a doctor's order on Florida's official form, often printed on yellow paper. It tells paramedics and hospital staff not to start CPR. If your parent wants this, their doctor has to sign it. Keep it visible at home, like on the refrigerator.
- POLST / portable medical orders: a broader doctor-signed form some Florida providers use to carry treatment preferences between settings.
If your parent wants a DNRO, bring it up with their primary care doctor. A living will alone won't stop paramedics from performing CPR.
Paperwork worth gathering at the same time
- The signed health care surrogate designation (and alternate)
- The signed living will
- A Florida DNRO, if your parent's doctor has signed one
- A current medication list and allergies
- Medicare, supplement or Medicare Advantage, and Part D cards (front and back)
- Primary doctor and specialists' names and phone numbers
- HIPAA authorization forms, if your parent's doctors use them
Everything on this list tends to be needed at the same moment: at hospital admission. A shared folder in a DokuDocs emergency vault means whoever reaches the hospital first has it.
Where to keep copies
Unlike a will, these documents need to be easy to reach, not locked away. Good places for copies:
- With the surrogate and the alternate
- With your parent's primary care doctor (ask that it be scanned into the chart)
- In the hospital's records if your parent has had a recent admission
- In a folder by the front door or on the refrigerator, especially with a DNRO
- Digitally, somewhere that opens on a phone
Why families put these in DokuDocs A surrogate form in a filing cabinet at your parent's house doesn't help when you're at a hospital in another city. In a DokuDocs vault, the form, insurance cards and medication list open on your phone, and they're there after a hurricane or a move too. Your parent controls who can request access and is notified if anyone tries.
Updating them
Review both documents whenever something big changes: a new diagnosis, a death or divorce in the family, a surrogate who moves away, or a change in your parent's views. Florida lets your parent revoke a designation in writing, by a spoken statement, by destroying it, or by signing a new one. Replace old copies everywhere you sent them so a doctor isn't looking at an outdated version.
Questions families ask
Does a Florida health care surrogate form need to be notarized?
No. Florida requires two adult witnesses, and at least one of them cannot be your parent's spouse or blood relative. The person named as surrogate cannot be a witness. A notary is not required, though some attorneys add one anyway.
Is a health care surrogate the same as a health care power of attorney?
It does the same job. Florida's statutes use the term 'health care surrogate.' A financial durable power of attorney does not cover medical decisions, so your parent needs both.
Can the surrogate see my parent's medical records?
Yes, once the surrogate has authority. Your parent can also choose to give the surrogate access to health information right away, even while they can still make their own decisions. Many families choose that, because it makes calls with doctors' offices much easier.
What if my parent's wishes change?
They can revoke or replace either document at any time while they have capacity, by signing a new one, writing a revocation, or telling their doctor. Give the new version to everyone who had the old one.
Is a DNR the same as a living will?
No. A Florida DNRO (Do Not Resuscitate Order) is a medical order signed by a doctor, printed on the state's yellow form. Paramedics follow a DNRO. They generally do not follow a living will.
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