Where to Store Your Advance Directive in Oregon

You spent the time to fill out Form OHA 3905, got it witnessed, and had your Health Care Representative sign the acceptance. Now where does it go?

The number one reason advance directives fail isn't a legal technicality — it's that the document can't be found when it's needed. A directive locked in a safe deposit box at the bank is functionally useless at 2 AM in an emergency room.

The Distribution Checklist

Your completed advance directive needs to be in multiple locations simultaneously. Here's who and where:

1. Your Health Care Representative and Alternates

Give paper copies to your primary HCR and each alternate. They need to be able to present the document to hospital staff and reference your treatment preferences during a crisis. If your HCR lives in another city, a scanned PDF sent via email works as a backup, but the original paper copy should be mailed.

2. Your Primary Care Physician

Call your doctor's office and ask them to scan your directive into your medical chart. Most Oregon practices (Providence, OHSU, Legacy, Kaiser Permanente, Samaritan Health) use electronic health record systems that store advance directives as part of your patient profile.

When you're admitted to a hospital through the emergency department, the care team checks your EHR for an advance directive before making treatment decisions. If it's in your chart, they find it. If it's at home in a drawer, they don't.

3. Your MyChart Patient Portal

Oregon's major health systems use Epic-based MyChart portals. You can upload your advance directive as a PDF or scanned image:

• Providence MyChart — upload under documents/advance directives
• OHSU MyChart — upload in the health records section
• Legacy MyChart — supports directive uploads
• Kaiser Permanente — upload through the patient portal
• Samaritan Health — accepts uploaded directives

This digital backup means your directive is accessible to any provider within that health system, even if you're treated at a different facility than your usual one.

4. At Home — Visible and Accessible

Keep the original in a visible, unlocked location. Common places:

• On the refrigerator (the "vial of life" location that EMTs are trained to check)
• In a clearly labeled folder on a desk or bookshelf in the main living area
• In a bedside drawer if you're in a care facility

Do not put it in a locked safe deposit box. Banks have limited hours, and no one is driving to the bank during a medical emergency. A home safe is fine only if your HCR knows the combination.

5. Emergency Wallet Card

Carry a card in your wallet that states:

• "I have an Oregon Advance Directive"
• Your Health Care Representative's name and phone number
• Where the full document is stored
• Whether you have a POLST on file

Oregon's POLST program provides wallet card templates. The card isn't a legal document — it's a signal to emergency responders to check the POLST Registry and contact your representative before making treatment decisions.

What Not to Do

Don't keep only one copy. If that copy is lost, damaged, or inaccessible, you effectively have no directive.

Don't store it only digitally. A PDF on your phone or in cloud storage may not be accessible to hospital staff, and phone batteries die. Digital copies are backups, not primary storage.

Don't hand it to your attorney and forget about it. Attorneys' offices have business hours. Emergency rooms don't.

Don't assume your hospital has it. If you completed the form years ago and changed healthcare systems, your new provider may not have a copy. Verify after every provider change.

When to Redistribute

Redistribute your directive whenever you:

• Execute a new or updated version (the old copies must be replaced)
• Change primary care physicians or healthcare systems
• Move to a new facility (assisted living, nursing home)
• Get admitted to a hospital (bring a copy, even if you think it's already in the system)

Keep Track of Who Has Copies

The biggest distribution failure: you gave copies out years ago but can't remember to whom. When you update your directive, you need to replace every copy — and you can't replace copies you've lost track of.

Keep a simple list: who has a copy, when they received it, and which version they have. Update it every time you redistribute.

Get Organized from the Start

The Oregon Advance Directive & Living Will Kit includes a distribution tracker that maps exactly who has your directive, a wallet card template, and step-by-step instructions for uploading to Oregon's major patient portals — so your directive is findable when it matters.

See more Oregon guides →