hospitalized patients

Carly Simon, Ketchup and an Advocate’s Secret Sauce

Many readers of this blog (members of The Alliance of Professional Health Advocates) know we’ve been burning the candle at both ends trying to complete the build of the new APHA membership website. Short of raising my two daughters, I think it’s the biggest project I’ve ever undertaken – just enormous – hundreds of resources and thousands of pages – and I’m happy that it is now complete! (Or at least as close as it will ever be – these things are never truly complete.) Along the way, I’ve learned a few lessons about how to approach the work that …

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Revisiting the Case of Farid Fata – Why Patient Advocates Must Take Notice

In July 2015, we took a look at the case of Farid Fata, the Michigan oncologist who is now in prison on fraud charges because he diagnosed and treated more than 500 people for cancer they didn’t have, many of whom died. Yes – you read that right. You read the part about treating more than 500 people for cancer they didn’t have. And, I hope you caught the part that he is in prison on FRAUD charges – not murder, not manslaughter – nothing that recognizes the horrible physical condition he left those patients in after aggressive chemo and …

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Can an Advocate Do More Harm Than Good?

Yes, sadly (although rarely) a patient advocate might do more harm than good. I was reminded of this recently when I heard from an APHA member who had picked up the ball from another advocate (not an APHA member) who had totally messed up the work a client-patient needed to have done – an advocate who had actually made the client’s situation worse. The problem-creating advocate had been working with her client through a hospitalization. As far as we know, that work went well. Her core business is medical-navigational advocacy. However, later, when the client’s hospital bill arrived, the client …

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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, …

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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 …

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What’s a Bad Outcome? And Where Does the Fault Lie?

Scenario: Joan, age 75, living in Ft. Lauderdale, was diagnosed with Stage IV Ovarian Cancer. Joan’s daughter, Beth, who lives in Kansas, contacts Maxine, a private patient advocate and RN who works in Ft. Lauderdale, to help her mother. Joan, Beth and Maxine have extensive conversations about the care Joan will need. The decision is made that Joan will need surgery and chemo. Maxine is hired to oversee the care since Beth lives so far away. The surgery goes well. The hospital stay is typical. Joan is discharged from the hospital, but three days later begins to show signs of …

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Watching the Headlines for Opportunities

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 …

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