Patients Are Powerful

Posts Tagged ‘patient advocate’

Talking to a doctor (when you’re a patient in an exam room) isn’t easy. I’m not talking about those fleeting moments when you suspect the doctor of having “God-complex” issues that make you feel as if you won’t be heard unless you genuflect or get down on both knees. No, what I’m referring to is when you’re standing barefoot or sitting bare-bottomed wearing a paper gown, with florescent lights beaming down on you making you look even less healthy than you already feel. Under these awkward and embarrassing circumstances, with the doctor fully dressed and sporting the all-wise, highly-achieved white coat, while you’re lacking even the basic outer accouterments that might give a modicum of self-confidence, it’s pretty hard for you to get your thoughts in order and feel your patient power. Instead, when it comes to your asking questions about your health, medical condition, and treatment, you feel uncomfortable, anxious, and ineffective. The “power gap” is almost palpable!

It is uplifting to take note that, in the last decade, some medical schools have started trying to bridge this gap by teaching their med students “clinical communication skills.” Third-year and fourth-year students are actually being required to role play, i.e., face-to-face encounters with actors playing patients of varying ages with a variety of dispositions and diseases. The students are then tested to see how well they interview “patients,” conduct physical examinations, and convey exam findings to the patients. Obviously, their ability to be empathetic is a big plus.

The good news is that this type of training doesn’t stop after graduation. In fact, in March 2005, the Communication Skills Laboratory at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center began offering a series of three-hour interactive workshops intended to give hospital oncology residents practice in “Breaking Bad News,” “Discussing Prognosis” and “Responding to Patient Anger,” among other touchy health-related topics.

Still, with all the emphasis on a doctor’s communication with patients, the patient advocacy side of the problem has largely been neglected. For instance, where are the guidelines for patients, such as “how to” or “when to” raise important questions that will help to calm the psyche without alienating the very person who may end up standing over them with a scalpel in his or her hand?

Unfortunately, the number of appointments (confrontations?) that require a negotiation between the doctor and the patient seemed to be on the rise, while the amount of time spent with a patient during a medical visit seems to be on the decline. How does a patient get the answers they need from their doctor, or how do they respectfully disagree?

A patient advocate is invaluable when it comes to helping patients prioritize the questions that are most pressing. Studies have shown that often the most important symptom or worry that a patient may have, such as a suspicious mole or lump, or even the feeling that life isn’t worth living, is often not on the top of a patient’s list, and such questions are frequently blurted out at the very end of an appointment because the patient was either afraid to ask the question or didn’t know how to prioritize it in the framework of a typical medical exam. In these instances, patients who have a patient advocate by their side can feel more confidant and be more assertive when requesting a follow-up meeting.

So, in this current healthcare climate, even when doctors are taught to listen attentively to patients, they are also well-aware that with low insurance reimbursements such attention comes time-constraints attached. The more a prepared a patient can be prior to a scheduled appointment with their doctor, with a list of prioritized questions in hand, the more patient power they will have.

Technorati Tags: patient advocate, patient power, patient-doctor encounters, patient-doctor power gap

As a Chicago chiropractor, I wait anxiously along with my patients and the rest of the country for the passing of a new comprehensive and compassionate Health Care Bill. And, along with the questions of cost and inclusiveness that everyone is asking, I believe that we should also be asking if an overhaul of the U.S. heathcare system will include simplification? Let’s face it, our current system is not only horribly expensive and amazingly ineffective, it is inherently complicated. When a person is ill, and may be in need of surgery or recovering from it, the last thing that they should have to worry about are complex insurance issues, sorting through mountains of bills, making certain that the proper medications are given, and that appropriate arrangements for follow-up treatment are made. Thanks to the dedicated patient advocate, these questions often do get answered.

However, if the new Health Bill falls short of simplification, as most Congressional Bills tend to do, through patient advocacy, patients will still have the “extra strength” they’ll need in order to stay informed when talking to the doctors, in getting to see a desired specialist, in ensuring that the pills that they are given are the ones meant for them, and, if necessary, in negotiating for any additional help that they may require and the fees charged for the services.

This is just part of the great service that patient advocates provide today. And, I suspect that no matter what happens to the healthcare system in the future, with the scores of aging baby boomers demanding, as they should, to receive the proper and affordable health care they require, the patient advocate will still be a vital part of any health environment.

Technorati Tags: healthcare system, patient advocacy, patient advocate, patient advocates

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/

Technorati Tags: Hiring a Patient Advocate, nurses, patient advocate