The Patient Advocate Insider

08/17/2023

08/10/2023

For moments when you notice that you are stressed: Find a quiet spot, tap on your heart and close your eyes. Focus on your heart while breathing in through your nose, then relax deeply on exhale. Repeat nine more times.

07/31/2023

A few tips for those with a loved one scheduled for surgery:

If the procedure will be at at teaching hospital, don't schedule a surgery during the Summer as the new residents arrive in the Summer, and they are unfamiliar with everything. This increases the likelihood of a medical mistake. Why expose your loved one to unnecessary risks?

While scheduling the surgery or during an appointment with the Surgeon, take a nurse aside and ask them if their loved one needed surgery, would they use the same surgeon?

07/24/2023

Your effectiveness as an advocate for your loved one is closely correlated to how much time you spend at their hospital bedside. As their advocate, you will spend between 15-24 hours each day, at their bedside, watching and verifying what goes into them and also what comes out of them. You'll verify that anyone entering their room is following precautions like mask, gloves or sanitizing their hands. A person's hand carry the most germs. Infections are one of the medical mistakes that can happen to your loved one as a hospital patient, and prolong their stay or worse. Its doubtful that a private advocate or an advocate from the hospital would go this far on behalf of your loved one. You are the best person to advocate for your loved one. After taking our course, you'll be the most effective advocate, as well.