Patients Are Powerful

Posts Tagged ‘Hiring a Patient Advocate’

Did you know that nurses have acted as patient advocates for over one hundred years? You did if you’ve ever been hospitalized. Nurses are like angels without the wings (though I’ve suspected that a few nurses I’ve met over the years probably had them tucked modestly under their uniforms.) As a chiropractor I often send my patients to the local hospital for x-rays, blood work, and other tests when necessary and the nurses are always helpful, thorough, efficient, and friendly. But, it isn’t until a person is hospitalized, i.e., confined to a hospital bed, confronted with the often perfunctory, cool attitudes of doctors, and often feeling confused, frightened, and alone, that a nurse seems most like an angel. But, nurses have lot of other duties to perform as well, and so I’ve always appreciated the presence of a Patient Advocate whose primary focus was not only helping a patient “get through” the ordeal, but to answer the many questions that patients often have about medical procedures and medications, and medical records and insurance forms.

A structured, expanded, independent form of Patient Advocacy has been taking root for decades now, with programs all over the country that offer professional certification and degrees in Healthcare Advocacy. Today, Patient Advocacy is a fast-growing, and much needed profession, especially with the many changes in health care that are happening now and will, no doubt, be occurring in the future.

That’s why I was happy to read that Hiring A Patient Advocate has started the First National Registry of Patient Advocates and Patients. It’s a wonderful idea whose time has come! Patients are never more powerful than when that have a Patient Advocate by their side!

To find out more about what a Patient Advocate does, go to http://hiringapatientadvocate.blogspot.com/2009/10/what-can-patient-advocate-do.htm, or if you’d like to be part of the registry, click on http://hiringapatientadvocate.com/

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