Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Patient Advocate Role In Ensuring Health Care

By Arline Bradley


These individuals are primarily concerned with the care of patients and whether they have got sufficient knowledge about health plans. Patient advocate is a role that can be played by an individual or also by an organization that specializes in these services.

Advocates act as link between the health care provider and the patients. Those who engage in this job mostly have a background in social work or other areas such as health care. Perfect examples of these people are doctors and nurses. In the study of ethics in nursing, this advocacy is one of the major areas that are emphasized.

Advocacy may entail simple responsibilities such as overseeing the transport of patients and supervising their transfer into nursing homes.

There is really no special licensing or accredited certification required to be in this field. However, institutions such as universities and colleges are offering simple training to those individuals wishing to engage in these roles. They organize workshops and some even offer certificates. Advocates are obliged to follow important legislation, rules that have been established and other requirements that have been stipulated. This means that they are individually responsible for educating themselves on these issues and the basic business of medicine.

This advocacy entails playing an extremely important role when it comes to communication. He or she has to ensure that the client is fully informed on the requirements of the health provider such as the various stipulated rules and procedures. He maintains that the health care provider has all the vital medical information concerning the client. He or She links the two and therefore ensuring that the client does not undergo any unnecessary strain or anxiety hence speeding up the recovery process.

He or she may go a notch higher to ensure that the client and the family have access to published medical materials that he or she deems necessary for them to have. This involves having family members kept abreast with what is happening with regard to the patient. He or she also keeps a close eye on the medical records and the general treatment of the former so as to ensure correctness and compliance. More to this, he or she may be involved in dispute resolution on behalf of the patient. This may entail filing suits or seeking the intervention of government bodies that ensure patient protection or even the help bodies that play oversight roles. Another important role is that of ensuring that information of the client is confidential does not get into public domain and if need be it must with his or her consent.

Advocates a times sit on investigative and advisory panels of organizations that deal with different aspects of health care to ensure that decisions adopted safeguard and impact positively on the lives of their clients. They seek adoption of best practices in dealing with health care matters. Various government offices have established an office that specifically deals with matters of patient advocacy. Complains about the advocate or the health care provider or any conflict on health care for example with the insurance company may be solved here.

Personal skills are very necessary in the delivery of these services. In fact those persons who are caring, empathetic and can put themselves in the shoes of the patient are the best for the job. A family member, a child, a spouse or even a chaplain may play this role. Services of professionals such as doctors or nurses may also be sought.




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