Trisha Torrey

Self-Centered and Unbusinesslike

Suppose I go to my favorite pizza shop and this conversation takes place:

Me: I would like a pepperoni pizza with black olives, onions, and extra cheese.

Johnny the Pizza Guy: Sure! I’d be happy to help you with this pizza. But first let me tell you all about my pizza experiences – the reason I like to make pizzas. When I was little, we went to my grandmother’s house for dinner every Wednesday. My grandmother always made meatloaf. She made meatloaf with ground beef and always made gravy and mashed potatoes to go with it. It tasted good. It was filling. Then one Wednesday after eating dinner at Grandma’s (and realizing that it didn’t quite taste the same) my brother got really sick and started to throw up. Then the rest of us started to get sick, too. My mother was worried, so she took us to the ER, and sure enough – Grandma’s meatloaf, which had been tried and true and never changed… Well. She had made it with pork this time, the pork hadn’t cooked through, and we all got food poisoning. So now I make pizza.

Me: Seriously? I come in here to order a pizza and I have to listen to that story? Forget it. I don’t want your pizza anymore.

Now, of course, not only will I not get my pizza, but I have to figure out what to do next, and make all new arrangements for dinner!

I know. You think I’ve really lost it now, but bear with me to see how this applies to you, as an independent advocate.

Continue Reading →

12
AUG

advocacy business, advocacy ethics, advocate bad practices, advocate marketing, client services, common sense, doctors / physicians, health advocates and navigators, patient advocacy, patients, professional standards

Going on Offense: Who Deserves an Advocate’s Help?

Posted by: Trisha Torrey

“Only rich people can afford an advocate.”

Or: “Doesn’t providing private patient advocacy services only to those who can afford them, just create one more division between the “haves” and the “have nots?”

Or: “Not everyone can afford an independent patient advocate. It’s unfair some people can’t be helped.”

Anyone who has worked in advocacy or care management has heard one or more of these statements, or at least one from the same playbook. It’s an objection meant to put us on the defensive, as if, since private advocacy can’t be provided to everyone, then we shouldn’t provide it to anyone.

Don’t let anyone put YOU on the defensive this way! It’s a foolish argument. Here’s why:

Continue Reading →

29
JUL

advocacy business, advocacy ethics, client services, common sense, decision making, health advocates and navigators, patient advocacy, patients

The Search Meter, Customer Service, and Fulfilling Your Need to Know

Posted by: Trisha Torrey

In your pre-advocacy lifetime, you may never have thought you would be dealing with “customer service.” And yet, now that you’ve started working with clients, that’s what you’re required to do every time you interface with a customer (client) in any way: in-person, through phone calls, or email, or even postal mail. Your website represents customer service. Even the signature on your email is a form of customer service.

Most new business owners who have never before lived in a customer service world believe that all they need to do is listen and respond. But that’s really only a start.

Today we’re going to look at finding ways to provide customer service that provide an experience with you and your practice that may be expected, or may instead be totally UNexpected, or provide a delightful surprise.

Of course, in these posts I’m all about providing examples… Do as I DO and not just as I say! Here’s an example of how we, through the myAPHA membership website, provide that customer service in a way you might not have expected.

Continue Reading →

15
JUL

advocacy business, advocate best practices, advocate education, client services, common sense, health advocates and navigators, patient advocacy

customer service

Coloring Outside the Lines

Posted by: Trisha Torrey

When people ask you what you do for a living, what do you – as an independent health / patient advocate, or care manager — reply to them?

It would be simple to say “I am an advocate” which, then, may require further explanation. That further explanation would likely include examples of the kinds of work you do (I attend doctor appointments with seniors. Or, I manage medical bills and negotiate them when they are too high. Or I help people figure out what their own choices are for treatments… or…. )

That further explanation is always valuable, especially if the person asks you additional questions – meaning you have engaged them. And they often do! They also tend to launch into stories on their own, beginning with “Where were you when….?” and then relate some horrible situation they or their loved one found themselves in. At that point you know they understand.

But this week, during a conversation with a gentleman who wants to jump into “our” world, I found myself telling him…

Continue Reading →

1
JUL

advocacy business, advocacy ethics, advocate marketing, client services, common sense, decision making, health advocates and navigators, hustle, patient advocacy, patients

Raise Your Dues So We Can Turn the Titanic?

Posted by: Trisha Torrey

Heard on the street (and on the phone, and during and in-person conversation, and by text….)

IFs and THENs:

If [the healthcare system] was just ______, then ______ !

You’ll have your own variations to fill in there, like:

If healthcare was less expensive, then more people could get care!
If doctors would spend more time with me, then I could get my questions answered!
If insurance would just cover it, then my client could get the treatment she needs!
If there were more specialists to cover my ailment, then I wouldn’t have to wait so long for an appointment!

…. and the list goes on and on.

In the 15 years I’ve been working in patient empowerment and advocacy, I have been asked hundreds of times to work on fixing those kinds of problems. I’ve been invited to Washington, DC. I’ve been asked to sit on committees, I’ve been hired as a consultant…

However!

Continue Reading →

17
JUN

advocacy ethics, allegiance, common sense, decision making, legal questions about health advocacy, patient advocacy, patients

policy