Our Services
Patient and Family Care
We work for you and with you, not for your insurance provider or your healthcare facility. However, we will work with your care team and/or help complete your expert team, in a collegial and constructive manner, to ensure that your care is evidence and consensus-based, timely, and safe. You and your loved ones will be well-informed participants at the center of care.
Every person is unlike any other. Thus, every patient and every family has unique needs and unique belief systems, requiring individualized care strategies. This is the essence of the patient and family-centered care model.
As independent RN Health Advocates, we will exhaustively search for medical facts along with integrative diagnostic and treatment options based on your signs and symptoms, medical history, and diagnosis(es). We will also consult with experts in the field, as necessary. After you have understood the facts, you would then have become the SMART PATIENT, as recommended by healthcare leaders, and with your SMART FAMILY, become active participants in your comprehensive diagnostic and treatment plan.
According to the Institutes of Medicine (IOM), most medical errors happen due to today’s complex healthcare system. However, errors also happen from absent or ineffective communication between the patients, the patients’ families, and their healthcare providers.
Informed patients and families have much better healthcare outcomes. The Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) found that doctors often are not able to assist their patients make informed decisions. In addition, it concluded that uninvolved and uninformed patients are less likely to comply with their own treatments.
Your health information is protected by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Privacy Rule. A HIPAA form must be signed before any service can be rendered.
What We Don’t Do
As independent RN Health Advocates, we work with you and for you so that you may have timely, effective, therefore, safe care. However, we do NOT:
- Make healthcare decisions for you or your loved ones. Rather, we will assist you to be better prepared for decision-making and confer with caregivers, with you as an active participant, or your trusted family member or friend, if you are not able to be one.
- Diagnose diseases, write prescriptions or medical orders, or take the place of a physician, advance practice nurse, social worker, physical/occupational/behavioral therapist, nutritionist, or others. Rather, we will advocate for the best possible diagnostic and treatment plan for you.
- Provide direct nursing care in the hospital. Rather, we will access your medical records with your permission, review your medications and test results, assess your needs, and coordinate the best possible care plan for you. Not only will we communicate and collaborate with your existing healthcare team but will also work on creating your needs-based consulting team, if you do not have one, whether inside or outside of your present healthcare facility.
