Patient Always First
1458 Campbell Road, Suite 150, Houston, Texas 77055
Phone: 713-461-2822; Fax: 713-468-8222
Executive Director and Medical Director – Carolyn Oliver, M.D., J.D.; Administrative Director – Betsy Kusin; Technology Director – Fred Trotter
Board of Directors: Carolyn Oliver, M.D., David Gill, M.D., and Leonard Hoffman, M.D.
Patient Always First (PAF) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization founded in Houston, Texas, in 2004 by Carolyn Oliver, M.D., J.D., with quality healthcare, patient education, and patient-empowerment goals.
For more than a year following the incorporation of Patient Always First, Dr. Oliver saw patients at the Patient Always First clinic. Her practice focused on providing quality healthcare to people who had no insurance or who had limited access to the continuity of care necessary for them to properly manage their chronic healthcare problems. The clinic operation was closed in October 2005, and the momentum of the non-profit shifted to a broader scale of informing and educating people across the U.S. on the quality problems and pitfalls in the healthcare system, and how to interact with the system to help themselves and their loved ones live healthier lives with less medical complications.
In furtherance of that mission, PAF has developed the following projects:
v PAF has developed an electronic personal health record, the PatientFirst Health Record (PFHR), which can be found at www.pfhr.org.
A personal health record (PHR) is a communication tool between a patient and his doctor, which the patient fills out at home before he becomes sick or needs a doctor. Electronic PHRs guide patients in entering their comprehensive medical history, and then print it out in a well-organized summary of the patient’s medical history. Doctors often no longer have the time it takes to put together such an organized, comprehensive summary of each patient’s health, and yet it’s enormously helpful to the doctor to have this information organized in this manner.
You’ve probably noticed that doctors seem to be moving quicker and quicker, and may be spending less time with you than you desire. Having an organized, printed PHR to hand to the doctor at the start of each visit is a good start to giving your doctor more time to focus on you (because he needs less time to “organize”).
And especially if you’re seeing more than one doctor—too much time is being spent as each doctor tries to keep track of what the other is doing. You can keep this information organized for them, and thus free up more time for the doctor to be focused on what you need now.
A personal health record is a new and innovative healthcare concept that can dramatically reduce redundancies in our healthcare system—both in expenditures of time and financial resources, and Patient Always First is supporting the adoption of good PHRs, of which we believe our PFHR is the best.
An analogy to illustrate the value of a PHR: a personal health record is way of helping a beleaguered part of our community to improve. Like recycling, where individuals and families take on more responsibility for the good of the whole community (or earth!), putting together a PHR on every family member is an individual and family effort from which our entire healthcare system could benefit.
v PAF, through Dr. Oliver, is also involved with the Oliver Center for Patient Safety and Quality Healthcare at the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB), Galveston, Texas. The Oliver Center was dedicated in 2008, and its first project is encouraging the tape-recording of doctors’ visits by clinic patients, so that they can better remember and follow doctors’ advice. See more about this project at http://www.utmb.edu/olivercenter/, and see http://www.utmb.edu/olivercenter/projects/current/pvrp/pvrp-comments.asp for some heartwarming comments the first group of patients have made about the project.
Patient empowerment, patient-centered care, and enhanced communication and respect between and among providers and patients are a few of the principles of the Center. See the ripple effect of innovative and patient-centered care at a major medical center at http://docoliver.com/2009/09/19/tape-recording.
v “Cautious Care: A Guide for Patients,” was published by Dr. Oliver in 2009. It offers detailed descriptions of the pitfalls that can happen to patients in the healthcare system, and specific instructions on how to get more involved so that you can get better healthcare. (And “more involved” means being involved in a positive, helpful and partnership way with your medical providers—not as adversaries.) Patient Always First receives all profits from the sale of Cautious Care.
v Cautious Patient is a committee of Patient Always First formed specifically to educate and empower patients in their quest for quality healthcare. See more about the Cautious Patient at /cautious-patient-organization. The Cautious Patient website at www.cautiouspatient.org also gives some specific advice that Dr. Oliver believes is not being covered on other healthcare websites, and complements the advice offered in “Cautious Care: A Guide for Patients.”
v Misdiagnosed is a pilot for a television series which tells the stories of real patients who have had mismanaged and misdiagnosed healthcare. Dr. Oliver started this project in 2006, and we have 3 videos near completion.
v Dr. Oliver has a website at www.DocOliver.com that highlights all of the different projects mentioned above, and she also updates this website frequently with personal commentary.