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….