Patient advocates need to manage expectations

Patient
April 29, 2012

Consider this scenario.

Joan, age 75, living in Ft. Lauderdale, was diagnosed with Stage IV Ovarian Cancer.  Joan’s daughter, Beth, who lives in Kansas, contacts Maxine, a private patient advocate and RN who works in Ft. Lauderdale, to help her mother.  Joan, Beth and Maxine have extensive conversations about the care Joan will need. The decision is made that Joan will need surgery and chemo.  Maxine is hired to oversee the …

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Patient advocates need to manage expectations

Considering patient advocacy as a career

Patient
October 3, 2011

Several questions have come my way recently about what kinds of job opportunities might exist for patient advocates.  I refer people to an article I’ve written elsewhere, but the real answer is – to be a true advocate, you must analyze who is paying for your services, and what your responsibility will be to them.

Finding an employer

In 2011, most of the job possibilities for patient advocates are …

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Considering patient advocacy as a career

It’s not an advocate’s job to save a patient’s life

Patient
July 16, 2011

Sooner or later, it happens to every patient advocate or navigator who works with patients on the medical aspects of their care (as opposed to other forms of advocacy, like billing or legal advocates).

One of “our” patients — someone whose hand we have held, who we have protected from problems in the hospital, who depended on our advocacy expertise as a way to make the …

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It’s not an advocate’s job to save a patient’s life

Smart patients need to establish a relationship with a primary care doctor

Patient
April 19, 2011

Good primary care physicians are becoming harder and harder to find.

You may not have noticed it yet, but I predict that a year from now we’ll find it almost impossible to find primary care doctors who are willing to take on new patients – at least any primary care doctor worth seeing won’t be …

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Smart patients need to establish a relationship with a primary care doctor

Health records need to be online to improve health and save money

Tech
February 11, 2011

I exchange thoughts with healthcare IT people on a daily basis over at Twitter.  So many of them seem perplexed at why we patients look at putting our medical records on the internet with trepidation.

Then along comes this video from Elizabeth Cohen at CNN.  In a matter of minutes, she was able to pull up one of her CNN colleague’s medical records, his kids’ …

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Health records need to be online to improve health and save money

Good patient communication by managing expectations

Physician
December 11, 2010

My father suffered a mild heart attack last year. In his 80+ years, he has never had any indication he had a problem with his heart!  A variety of other health issues have arisen over time, but Dad’s heart was always thought to be as strong as could be.

In fact, despite protestations (“I don’t really think these chest pains are a big deal… let me just …

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Good patient communication by managing expectations

How to command respect in any medical setting

Patient
October 25, 2010

It’s a simple question, but it has stirred some controversy.  It’s the word “friendly.”

Colleague and fellow passionate advocate Bart Windrum got (as my mother would say) his blood in a bubble after reading an article about engaging a patient advocate to help you navigate your healthcare, published in a Tampa newspaper.

In a list of tips about how to advocate for someone else, one tip said, “In hospitals ask, …

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How to command respect in any medical setting

Patients don’t believe the evidence, blame our healthcare system

Policy
September 11, 2010

Health Affairs reports on a study that finds Evidence That Consumers Are Skeptical About Evidence-Based Health Care.

According to the abstract,

We found many of these consumers’ beliefs, values, and knowledge to be at odds with what policy makers prescribe as evidence-based health care. Few consumers understood terms such as “medical evidence” or “quality guidelines.” Most believed that more care meant higher-quality, better care. The gaps in …

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Patients don’t believe the evidence, blame our healthcare system

Sharing medical records with patients can save lives

Patient
August 9, 2010

Regina Holliday’s husband, Fred, age 39, died of cancer in June 2009 leaving his wife, and his two young, beautiful children behind.  During their journey through the healthcare system to try to get Fred the help he needed, too many hurdles were put in their way.  Their story makes you want to scream.

Among the horrors of their journey was the fact that Fred was transferred …

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Sharing medical records with patients can save lives