The Healthcare Advocate
Fifty years ago, doctors traveled to the homes of their
patients, watched as families grew and spent time talking to
their patients. Now the average office visit is 11 minutes and
physicians may be seeing as many as 40 patients a day. To
counter the long waits for rushed appointments, the confusion
about what types of care are available and best suit your needs,
and the stress of navigating the U.S. healthcare system, a new
profession has emerged--the professional healthcare advocate. If
we do not have this in the glossary already it should be added).
While many families have typically relied on a member of the
family who, by default in difficult situations, becomes the
dedicated healthcare advocate for a loved one, the education and
training of professional healthcare advocates is expanding as
the U.S. healthcare system buckles under the weight of cost
control, bureaucracy and treatment options.
For more than 20 years, Sarah Lawrence College has offered a
graduate degree in health advocacy. Several other colleges and
universities have followed suit, creating both graduate and
undergraduate programs of study for those who wish to become
healthcare advocates. Most graduates of these programs become
healthcare policy advocates, professional healthcare advocates,
or work in hospitals or other medical settings as ombudsmen and
patient representatives, responsible for helping patients and
their families find the care and services they need within that
particular institution.
But there's an exciting new development within the field--the
private professional healthcare advocate who is not tied to a
single medical institution or network of doctors. These
specially trained individuals can be found at PinnacleCare,
where a healthcare advocate does more than guide patients and
families to the best care available. PinnacleCare's healthcare
advocates manage the entire healthcare process, from collecting
medical records from all of the healthcare practitioners a
family has seen, to expediting appointments and completing the
necessary paperwork, to accompanying patients to appointments to
act as an objective "second pair of ears."
"By creating a comprehensive service that provides independent,
high quality professional health management 24/7, we are able to
help people who are confused by the multiplicity of treatment
options and the complexity of medical information," explains
John Hutchins, Managing Director of PinnacleCare, the firm at
the forefront of this new form of comprehensive private
healthcare management. "The role our healthcare advocate team
takes on extends far beyond the traditional definition of
healthcare advocacy to comprehensive, personalized management of
the whole healthcare experience for the entire family. When
you're dealing with a serious medical situation, it's only
natural to be overwhelmed. People tend to be confused about
their options and too distracted or upset to ask the important
questions that need to be asked. A professional healthcare
advocate takes up that role, taking notes, doing research,
providing information in layman's terms, and asking questions.
This allows the family members to turn their energies toward
loving and supporting the patient."