doctors / physicians

You’re Not Charging Enough, and It’s Hurting Our Entire Profession

5 minutes of reading / 5 Comments / By

What is it worth to find someone who can save your life? What is it worth to find someone who can provide quality to a life that has little or no quality because of health problems? What is it worth to find someone who can save you tens of thousands of dollars, or to prevent you from going bankrupt? What is it worth to find someone who can alleviate your fear, and provide peace of mind? …………….. I can tell you what it’s worth based on what I read in the press, in the APHA Forum, in my email and …

You’re Not Charging Enough, and It’s Hurting Our Entire Profession Continue Reading

Saving Your Clients from Jerks, Crooks and Malintents

4 minutes of reading / 2 Comments / By

(Apologies for the lists that no longer work in this post. In early summer 2014, About.com deleted almost 1000 posts and articles I had written. The points below are still valid, but I wanted you to know why the links may not produce what you expect.) I’m angry. And I’m appalled, too. And I think that you, as advocates, can be effective gatekeepers, guarding your client-patients from these kinds of providers. I’ve just finished blogging at About.com about two situations that have come to light recently. A third belongs here, too – from the general news. The story of an …

Saving Your Clients from Jerks, Crooks and Malintents Continue Reading

A Surefire Way to Drive Older Clients Away

5 minutes of reading / 3 Comments / By

OK – so I confess. I talk baby talk to my dog. He’s little, and snuggly, and adorable – and it’s just so easy to call him cutesy names and fall into that simplification of short sentences that we do with babies, too. Just what is it about babies and puppy dogs that begs us to speak baby talk to them. I think that it’s that aura of vulnerability that surrounds them. Vulnerability that begs us to be reassuring or coddling or just drippy-sweet. They clearly need caretaking or caregiving, and we, as their protectors, want to make them feel …

A Surefire Way to Drive Older Clients Away Continue Reading

The Tragedies That Keep Me Up at Night

5 minutes of reading / By

The collision of my two professional worlds is keeping me up at night. It provides a cautionary tale for private, independent patient advocates. Not all readers of this blog know that I have my feet planted in two parts of this patient-assistance world. My first foray into healthcare started in 2004 with a horrific misdiagnosis which resulted in a change of careers (from being a marketing consultant) to becoming an expert in patient empowerment. By 2005 I had started writing on patient empowerment topics. Then in 2006, I began doing a great deal of public speaking across the US – …

The Tragedies That Keep Me Up at Night Continue Reading

Pushing Back

5 minutes of reading / Leave a Comment / By

I truly dislike negativity. I suspect you do, too. As a kid, I would avoid arguments like the plague. I hated the upset that went along with it – that feeling of frustration, and churning in my stomach. Ugh. As I got older, I realized that negativity was always going to be a part of my life whether I liked it or not. Avoiding it was not an option, because avoiding it meant I wasn’t sticking up for myself or my loved ones or the tenets I believed in. Avoiding it meant I couldn’t right a wrong – or learn …

Pushing Back Continue Reading

A New Tool for Choosing Providers – and You Can Help

3 minutes of reading / 1 Comment / By

If you aren’t aware of the Society for Participatory Medicine, you should be. The organization’s membership is comprised of people who work or seek healthcare who promote participation, collaboration, cooperation and empowerment of all parties involved in the practice of medicine. Yes – people like us. You may be more familiar with the group if I tell you that the “e-patient” movement started with the SPM. Importantly – members include patients, caregivers and others who are not necessarily traditional participants – and yes, advocates. It truly lives up to its name: PARTICIPATORY. We, as advocates, are too keenly aware that …

A New Tool for Choosing Providers – and You Can Help Continue Reading

Watching the Headlines for Opportunities

3 minutes of reading / 1 Comment / By

A link on Twitter precipitated today’s post and idea for you. It contains a challenge, too! See below. The tweet linked to a news article: A second set of eyes cuts errors at HCMC. It tells about an initiative at Hennepin County Medical Center (Minneapolis) that cut the medication errors found in patients’ discharge paperwork from 92 percent – to zero. 0. Nada. No medication errors. Impressive. Now, if you or your patient-client happens to be discharged from Hennepin County Medical Center, that’s great news. But the article got me wondering – what about the other 99.999 percent of discharged …

Watching the Headlines for Opportunities Continue Reading

APHA Blog : The Alliance of Professional Health Advocates →←
Scroll to Top