Loyola Marcella Niehoff School of Nursing. Loyola Advantage Nursing Career. Get Started Today. First Name. Last Name. Prefer Online. Prefer Onsite. Get Started. VA benefits for long-term care, such as Aid and Attendance benefits, can help eligible veterans and their surviving spouses pay for senior care. Home care relies on trained aides to provide companionship and non-medical care for seniors living at home. Independent living facilities offer convenient, hassle-free living in a social environment for seniors who are active, healthy, and able to live on their own.
Nursing homes provide short-and long-term care for seniors who have physical or mental health conditions that require hour nursing and personal care. Senior apartments offer accessible, no-frills living for seniors who are generally active, healthy, and able to live on their own. Fortunately, there is a person with the skillset to help: a patient advocate. Learn more about patient advocates, what their role is within the healthcare system and the ways they can help you navigate it.
A patient advocate does the job of helping their patients receive the best health care possible at the most affordable rates. Patient advocates are often divided into two specialties:. Instead, they help you get the right advice from medical practitioners and understand it, then they manage the recommended care. For aging seniors or busy caregivers , the reasons to consider working with a patient advocate are compelling:.
When you meet with a doctor, you generally have limited time in the room before they need to move onto other patients. Patient advocates can help with all that. To start, they help patients walk into the appointment with a plan. I printed out copies for him, the doctor and me. When they got to the appointment, the patient knew exactly what to say. Their knowledge of the system means they know important things to ask that your average patient might not. Patient advocates are better equipped to understand the different charges in a medical bill.
Healthcare providers are often busy and have a hard time providing the amount of information necessary during a short appointment for you to truly understand your care needs and condition.
One of the services many patient advocates offer is helping do research into medical conditions and treatments to supplement the information your doctors provide, so you have a better idea of the details behind the prognosis and treatment recommendations your doctor brings up.
Patient advocates also:. In some cases, patient advocates are provided by health insurance companies. Hospitals, nursing homes and even senior living communities will sometimes have in-house patient advocates. Keep in mind that these advocates are on the hospital payroll. While they should still have your best interests in mind and come to the situation understanding the inner workings of your hospital better than someone from outside would, if that gives you pause, then this might not be your preferred option.
The most apparent trend of the past seven years is that there are powerful lobbyists in this industry that will do anything to keep the status quo alive and well in healthcare. There are also amazing individuals, often on Twitter, check out hcldr , that will not stop fighting for the patient voice and the positive disruption that comes when data silos are leveled and technology is used appropriately.
Will patients ever be like consumers of other products? How would you like to see those avenues expanded or re-routed? Partnership in care requires two-way communication. Care is always about choice. When we embrace price transparency, a patient can decide which facility has the most affordable MRI procedure.
When we have medical record data transparency coupled with a clinical trials database, a cancer patient can decide the best personal path for their care. Which may include a hospice path, if that is their choice. We have a choice right now. The difference in healthcare is that we have to fight for that choice, whereas in retail it is expected that the customer will decide which items to buy rather than the shopkeep.
How would you like to see healthcare systems and hospitals — particularly public and teaching systems — involve patients or their advocates in meaningful aspects of care best practices, policy making and priority-setting? Patients, caregivers, and patient advocates need to be present in meetings throughout the facility. For far too long we have been forced into the role of lobby designers. We ask that you invite us to take part and provide appropriate recompense for our time.
Or schedule the meeting after the workday is done at the facility. That would be fine. Then everyone at the table can be the unpaid volunteer that patients and family caregivers are so often asked to be. You might want to make sure we can have those meetings next to a playroom though, so our children can play together while we work together to create new policy. Because whether you are a patient or a provider, childcare is expensive. As far as a healing benefit, the art process is a type of meditation and that can help soothe the soul.
It is a very nice feeling to be in the zone and at one with the cosmos. But the creation of art could feel like a nail ramming through my hand, and I would still create.
I use art as a tool and the goal is to impact others. He stares at me from that painting like he is still with me. Still alive on pigment covered canvas. Still urging me to help him, a patient.
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