This post was contributed by
Caryn Isaacs, Get Health Help
You may have noticed that all of the Patient Advocate Mentors, recommend some form of business planning. We all have successful businesses because we learned to price our services in a way that fits our individual approach to doing business.
I previously worked as a practice management consultant. The doctors I helped to start or expand their practices, never wanted ...
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This post was contributed by
Lisa Berry Blackstock, Soul Sherpa®
When a patient advocate decides to offer patient accompaniment services, the most common motivating factor is a desire to help a patient navigate the healthcare system more effectively. Better results can take the form of streamlined communication with healthcare providers, ensuring proper diagnoses and plans of care, and minimizing unnecessary diagnostic procedures and medical interventions when lifestyle changes might be all that’s needed.
There are cases, though, ...
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This post was contributed by
Cindi Gatton, Pathfinder Patient Advocacy Group
As professional patient advocates we come to our discipline with a deep desire to help people through the vagaries of our healthcare system, a system that can swallow up even the most informed consumer. Our clients trust us to be able to step back from the situations that are upsetting and unfathomable to them to help them make truly personalized, informed decisions.
This is not work for the ...
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This post was contributed by
Linda Adler, Pathfinders Medical
I recently spent a weekend visiting my old college campus. I was eager to return to the city I had adored in my youth, the place that had such a deep impact on my adulthood. But I wasn’t sure where to stay, given that the city had grown dramatically, and there were so many unfamiliar options in areas that didn’t even exist in my day. So I went with ...
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Caryn Isaacs, Get Health Help
Are you prepared to help people regardless of your feelings towards them?
Ask yourself:
This post was contributed by
Lisa Berry Blackstock, Soul Sherpa®
Most patient advocates are hungry for business, and for good reason. More customers mean better business revenues. It’s one of the major reasons people enter into business, regardless of the profession.
Patient advocacy isn’t any different. What is different about our profession, though, is a knee-jerk tendency to assume every potential client is a client worth taking. What patient advocate doesn’t want to help a person in need? We ...
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This post was contributed by
Cindi Gatton, Pathfinder Patient Advocacy Group
Occasionally when I’m asked the inevitable “What do you do?” at a party, I answer that I am a personal fire department for health care issues.
Most calls to the fire department don’t come when people first smell smoke, but rather when someone sees flames. The reality I experience in my own practice is ...
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This post was contributed by
Karen Mercereau, RN Patient Advocates
Undoubtedly you are passionate about the role and determined to help people survive the medical system as well as possible. What do I mean about survive?
You may already know that the Academy of Medicine report (2115) that states there are 12 million misdiagnoses in the US annually and that there are up to 440,000 deaths due in full or part to preventable ...
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This post was contributed by
Linda Adler
“But I’m not an entrepreneur!” That’s the response I often hear when I first introduce the concept to some of my students or mentorship clients. They remind me that their motivation to be an advocate is borne out of their desire to use their talent and experience to help others, and to provide critical services: not to capitalize on the hardships of others.
Granted, those of us here in Silicon Valley ...
Continue Reading →This video post was contributed by
Caryn Isaacs, Get Health Help