vendredi 20 juin 2014

A Patient Advocate Makes Medical Processes Easier

By Sally Delacruz


Patient advocacy has been described as one of the fastest emerging careers most notably by the Entrepreneur magazine and US News. It is a field that has attracted entrepreneurs, social workers and medical professionals. These are examples of the people who have the interest, skill and qualifications to a patient advocate. This is primarily because patient advocacy has many aspects that require diverse expertise ranging from matters of insurance, health and law.

The health care system, irrespective of the country you hail from, has become extremely tenuous that patients have to find an intermediary between themselves and the health provider. Doctors and nurses are not sufficient anymore to help us navigate through the many problems in the system. Professional private advocates become the best option for patients.

Advocates may help you in way like pursuing insurance claims, helping you understand a disease and its treatment or may even monitor your progress from home. Medical advocacy remains one of the most important type of advocacy in determining the outcome of a medical process.

These advocates will be with you in the office of the doctor and ask pertinent questions on your behalf, help you make up your mind when it comes to important and difficult medical decisions, be with you in hospital to ensure you get the best hospital care, get the appropriate drugs or ensure you are not exposed to any infection in hospital conditions.

It is the role of every expert to help the patient move around. In fact the society has left the duty of moving the ageing sick to nursing home upon them. They are highly qualified personnel and know there work. They see to it that the old that are sick in the society get to nursing homes successfully and also help in payment whenever need arises.

The advocate while acting as a link between the client and the health care provider should ensure that the two sides are furnished with all the vital information. The client needs to be aware of the rules and procedures that have been set by the health care provider. On the other hand, the later needs to have relevant information such as previous health problems of the patient. This promotes quick recovery of the sick individual hence to it that the whole medical process runs smoothly without any strains.

This field is open to every person. There is no specific accreditation or license required to venture in the field. However some institutions of higher learning offer special training to interested individuals. Today there are workshops and conferences that are organize training on the field. After the training one is issued with a certificate. There are specific rules and legislation that advocates should observe in the jobs. It is in these gathering that they are enlightened about such matters.

In taking care of the sick, the advocate must always ensure that he or she does not get too much attached with the former to an extent of affecting his or her work. The latter must be supportive and believe in the patient. At times one has to act as spokesperson. Therefore the best person for the job must be caring and possess many more personal skills. A spouse, chaplain or even family members may play this role.




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