Why Hire An RN Patient Advocate - A Nurse Advocate?
1. Our Healthcare System Is Fractured
Healthcare in America is plagued with problems, putting people at risk physically, emotionally and financially. It’s fragmented: often provided by multiple physicians, and by sub-specialists focused on one organ system. They rarely have a complete picture of you as a person and what you may need on different levels. Patients feel powerless to do anything to improve the quality of care provided, its impersonality, the minimal time allowed for visits, or its excessive cost. All this, plus a serious lack of communication and coordination, leads to uncertain, impersonal and less-than-optimal care. It takes a healthcare expert to help you move through it.
Our RN Patient Advocates will help you make sense of the overwhelming amount of information you get from different care providers, so you are able to evaluate it properly in order to make well-informed decisions.
Engage Livingwell’s Nurse Advocates who will spend time with you one-to-one to understand you and your needs, and assist you in reaching a plan of action consistent with your goals, beliefs and comfort level.
2. Getting Referred To The Best Physicians
Why? Because physicians often limit referrals to their own networks. Few have the time or contacts to find the right and best physicians & surgeons you need outside of their network.
Our RN Patient Advocates are all highly-experienced, Registered Nurses who understand what makes a physician or surgeon a good fit. They will identify world renown physician and surgeons for you to consult.
3. Hospitalization Exposes You To Serious Risks
Hospitals and nursing homes can be unsafe. The Institute of Medicine reports that approximately 450,000 hospital patients die each year because of medical mistakes – and those numbers are based only on what hospitals report which is about 10% of all medical errors. Hospital-acquired infections also harm nearly two million patients and kill approximately 100,000 people a year; more than diabetes or influenza/pneumonia.
Physician error is a frequent known cause, but recent studies revealed the nationwide nursing shortage is also a contributing risk factor. High patient-to-nurse ratios, fatigue on long shifts, mandatory overtime, a lack of experienced staff, and inadequate time for monitoring patients are all being associated with poor medical results and higher death rates. We will help you minimize your risks if you need to be hospitalized.
For some people, the right support and guidance on preventive care will keep them healthy and out of the hospital. But if you must be hospitalized, our Nurse Advocates will provide active guidance on how to stay safe, avoid complications and errors while you’re in any medical facility and improve your chances for a fast release. This includes daily, ongoing oversite of care and emotional support for you and your family members.
4. The Healthcare System Priorities Are Backward
Our current system usually waits for diseases to occur, then aims to treat them. Too little emphasis is put on disease prevention and wellness, which should be the first priority. We’ll help you make healthy diet and lifestyle choices to prevent disease in the first place.
Our RN Patient Advocates are also health coaches who are well versed in all aspects of healthy living and disease prevention and are prepared to guide and support you in these areas. This includes nutrition and the right use of dietary supplements, exercise and other health and wellness strategies. All to empower you and help you maintain and enhance your sense of well-being.
5. Internet Information Can Be Inaccurate
Many people facing a health issue go to the Internet for answers. Approximately 65 million Baby Boomers alone are online, and 3/4 of them search for health-related information there. But what they find is not only overwhelming in sheer volume, but can be inaccurate, conflicting and confusing.
We’ll help you identify and understand the information that’s relevant and credible.
Our Nurse Advocates will guide and support you in exploring online and other information, assess its validity, appropriateness for your issue, and then help you to weigh the options that emerge from this information.
6. Dealing With Health Issues Of Aging Loved Ones
For consumers dealing with an ill, aging, or dying parent or loved one, support for the challenges, such as choosing a facility, signing a do not resuscitate order, or dealing with one’s own emotional turmoil around those decisions is often lacking. We provide the special support required for dealing with serious health issues of a loved one.
Livingwell’s services extend to dealing with ill, aging, or dying parents or loved ones, trying to find and choose a facility for them, making health proxy decisions, or helping them reach other health care decisions. Our RN Aging Life Care Managers are trained to handle all aspects aging well and end-of-life issues, including giving thoughtful emotional and decision-making support to anyone in your family circle.