Prevent Hospital Infections
Hospital acquired infections are deadly. Hospital acquired infections in U.S. hospitals occur 1.7 million times a year, and 99,000 patients die each year from those infections.1 The beside advocate is the patient’s best shield against acquiring an infection. Keep a bottle of gel hand sanitizer in the hospital room near you. When any nurses, doctors,…
Don’t Allow Doctors or Nurses to Ignore Your Concerns
Always trust your intuition and make sure your health care providers are listening. You know your loved one better than anyone else. If you can’t get your doctor or nurse to listen and act on your concerns, then contact the hospital’s patient advocate. Many hospitals now have them, and they are vital to patient safety….
What if the Doctor Asks You to Leave the Room?
If a doctor asks you to wait in the wait outside, just say calmly yet confidently, “I’m going to stay out of the way, but I need to be here.” Then back away from the patient to the side of the room where you are out of the way. If they ask again, just respectfully…
Be Kind to the Nurses
Nurses are there to assess you and decide what your nursing needs are, and then to formulate goals and plans based on those needs. They implement those plans, and then they continually re-evaluate how those plans are working to help you get well and stay free from complications while in the hospital, in addition to…
Go With Your Loved One When He Leaves His Room
If your patient is sent to x-ray or another part of the hospital for a test or procedure, go with him. Transportation at the hospital typically sends an orderly to take your loved one to these places, but oftentimes, your loved one is then set on the side of a hall, either coming or going,…
General Information for the Bedside Advocate
Act calmly, respectfully, considerately and helpfully. Once doctors and nurses see that most advocates are acting this way, they will be welcomed. Stay out of the way. The beside advocate should be “background” not in the foreground. Don’t get into confrontations with doctors or nurses. If you feel there is a problem you can’t surmount…
The Joint Commission Recommendations for Bedside Advocates
The Joint Commission advises you to do the following:
The Bedside Advocate
When a person is so sick that he’s hospitalized, he really can’t be the best advocate for himself, and careless things can happen when he’s alone. The person sitting with the patient can be a family member, a close friend, or even someone you hire. But this essential position- ensuring the safety of your loved…
The Most Important Safeguard for the Hospitalized Patient- You
Absolutely the most important thing for an inpatient: keep a close relative or friend sitting with the patient 24/7. When people aren’t feeling well, they are not good advocates for themselves. They need someone there with them who can help. It wasn’t this way years ago, but in our modern hospital culture, doctors spend only…
An Inpatient is in a Very Precarious Position
Almost 100,000 patients die in the U.S. hospitals every year due to medical errors, and there are certain things you can and should do to help ensure that your loved one is not in that statistic. The U.S. healthcare system is not a smooth-running machine- it is riddled with errors and lack of safety checks….
Your Ability to Stop Medical Errors Before They Can Affect You
If you want to avoid being a victim of a medical error, you have to participate. “Some people appear to have these characteristics such that, in the presence of an error, there is a persistent sense that something is not right and it must be pursued until a satisfactory level of assurance is reached. These…
Preventing Illness
Do your family a favor and get the preventative medicine tests that you need. For children, this usually means immunizations and checks for proper growth and recommended intervals. For women, it usually means pap smears and mammograms at certain ages and recommended intervals. For all adults, it means having your blood pressure and cholesterol checked…
Some Doctors are “Bad Apples”
If you find your doctor doing something “just a bit dishonest”, it’s probably just the tip of the iceberg. Go elsewhere. Just follow a general policy of keeping your eyes wide open, following your instincts, and not trusting in doctors as if they were gods or infallible.
Procedures and Operations: Studies Show A Lot of Inappropriate Use
If a doctor is pressuring you into a procedure, scaring you into a procedure or discouraging you from getting a second opinion, that is our cue to get out of there. A reputable doctor will always respect your intelligent decision to get another opinion, or to look at the literature or do some Internet searching…
Asthma Treatment
If you or your child is an asthma patient who makes frequent trips to the doctor’s office or emergency room for out-of-control symptoms, then do some Internet researching so that you can understand what classification of asthma you have, and you can know what medications you should be on to keep your asthma in control….
Your Healthcare Plan Can Affect Your Health
Healthcare plans come in about three general types: (1) those where you can see any doctor you want (often called fee-for-service); (2) those where you can see any doctor you want, but the insurance company will pay less if the doctor you pick is “out-of-network” (not in their plan, often called a PPO); and (3)…
You May Not Be Getting The Tests or the Specialty Referral You Need for Your Medical Condition
If you take a look at guidelines for your chronic medical condition like diabetes or heart disease. Some of you may find that you’re not getting all of the lab tests that you need. And some of you may be going to your doctor repeatedly for a condition. And even though you’re not getting any…
Breast Lump Evaluation: the Triple Assessment Protocol
Be aware that breast lumps are treated in a different fashion from doctor to doctor. This inconsistency is very conducive to a patient becoming a victim of a late diagnosis of breast cancer, when there is a much higher rate of dying. Failure to diagnose breast cancer has been the leading or second most common…
Phone Calls to the Doctor When He is in the Office
When you call a doctor’s office to get a question answered by your doctor, make sure that the answer comes from your doctor and is not just the opinion of the nurse. Much of the time, if the nurse just answers the question on the spot, then the answer is suspect. Many doctors allow their…
The Problem with After-Hours Phone Calls to Your Doctor
Although it is very comforting to be able to call your doctor when the office is closed, know that yo uprobably don’t have his full attention. He may be slepeing, drinking or driving and his full attention is not on you like it is when you in the office. You should be very cautious when…
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