hospital patient advocates

Gallimaufry: Your Questions, Some Answers, Media and Just Stuff

Last summer I came upon this great word – a word I had never heard before, but which can be used in so many aspects of conversation and life! The word is “gallimaufry.”? It means a hodgepodge, a jumble, or confused medley of things – items, ideas, anything at all. It’s a great word for an advocacy entrepreneur! It describes the many ideas that come together to define challenges and create solutions, or the many activities it takes to achieve success, or even the creative approaches it takes to help our clients, or help each other. I’ve even adopted the …

Gallimaufry: Your Questions, Some Answers, Media and Just Stuff Continue Reading

Chutzpah! Know When It Crosses the Line

One of my favorite words: Chutzpah! Pronounced “hoots-pah.” A Yiddish word translated as “shameless audacity” or “supreme self-confidence,” as in (according to Merriam-Webster) “personal confidence or courage that allows someone to do or say things that may seem shocking to others.” …. and sometimes a trait required by the most effective of health and patient advocates. Do you have chutzpah? And more importantly, do you know how and when to use it? I ask this because I think there are appropriate times, and inappropriate times, when an advocate needs to showcase his or her chutzpah. Lately I have experienced both, …

Chutzpah! Know When It Crosses the Line Continue Reading

Don’t Let the YesButs Stand in Your Way

A Big Yes-But

This post is dedicated to all our APHA members and non-members who have been infested with YesButs. What’s a YesBut? A YesBut is the answer to all those questions and suggestions intended to help them build their practices that they prefer to not think about. Further, it’s the answer they give that, until these same advocates find a solution, indicates they will not succeed. I wish I had a dollar for every YesBut someone fires back at me! “YesBut they need the help so badly and they don’t have any money!” “YesBut I’m afraid to quit my fulltime job until …

Don’t Let the YesButs Stand in Your Way Continue Reading

The VITAL Piece of Information the Press – and Many Patients AND Advocates – Are Missing

It happened one more time this week, frustrating me one more time this week, making me feel like a broken record again this week and then realizing…. hey! Why not make this point louder and clearer enough so that YOU can all be a part of my “point well spoken” army! What am I talking about? The press – which has produced one more article this week about this “new career” of patient advocacy or navigation, making it sound like a grand dream come true for anyone who cares about helping patients. None of these articles have been realistic about …

The VITAL Piece of Information the Press – and Many Patients AND Advocates – Are Missing Continue Reading

Hospital Providers Come to Patient Advocates’ Defense

Last week I had the opportunity to speak to two groups of hospital quality personnel; those folks who work in hospitals who are charged with overseeing the safety of their patients. They are QIOS, that is, Quality Improvement Officers – and their jobs depend on making sure that their body of patients this year are safer than their body of patients were last year, that next year’s patients are safer than this year’s, and so forth. My overall message was “let patient’s help”- the idea that no one cares as much about a patient’s good outcomes than the patient and …

Hospital Providers Come to Patient Advocates’ Defense Continue Reading

An Advocate’s Allegiance Makes All the Difference

Just in the past week alone, I’ve been asked three times why someone would hire a private patient advocate when there are so many other forms of help available. What other forms would those be? A variety: hospital patients can call on the hospital’s patient advocate for help cancer patients find navigators to help them through treatment insurance customers can call their customer service rep, or even an insurance company patient advocate a newly diagnosed patient can often find that large disease advocacy organizations, like the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society or the American Diabetes Association, will provide an advocate to …

An Advocate’s Allegiance Makes All the Difference Continue Reading

Plenty of Disruption at the PPAI Conference

It was an incredible collection of professionals representing a wide spectrum of private and hospital advocacy. Men, women, younger (20-somethings), older (70-somethings), newbies (“I’m still thinking about it”) and veterans (“I’ve been doing this for 20 years!”). Bedside advocates, hospital advocates, billing and claims advocates, mediators, nurses and nurse practitioners, lawyers, x-ray technicians, social workers, CPAs, mothers, fathers, daughters and sons, nieces and nephews, neighbors and friends… And they are all disruptive – and are now more committed to continuing disruption than ever. Such was the PPAI (Professional Patient Advocate Institute) Conference held last week in Orlando. It was a …

Plenty of Disruption at the PPAI Conference Continue Reading

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