Patient Advocacy Analysis Essay

IntroductionA forbearing counselling whitethorn be present for wellnessc ar appointments and alert the healthc ar provider well-nigh persevering compliance issues. He or she whitethorn separately assist the healthcare provider and contain staff with potential drop issues and parley ch exclusivelyenges. The long-suffering urge is also responsible for maintaining communication with the patient and healthcare provider to ensure that patients deduct the procedures. By reducing fear and increasing patient compliance, this arsehole result in higher prosperous manipulations. Gener entirelyy, a patient protagonism contract that take ons a release of medical checkup information must be placed with each healthcare facility (Ad Hoc Committee on Advocacy, 1969). Some institutions may require a power of attorney for healthcare for a patient advocate to exchange surreptitious information. The patient advocate may provide medical literature and research services to the patient, fa mily, or healthcare provider. The patient advocate may also assist with family communication on issues arising from illnesses and injuries . This may include further referral for care and support for both patients and families.The patient advocate has a responsibility for awareness of compliance, appropriateness, and coordination of care for the patient, such as circumspection for potentially conflicting treatment modalities and medications. The patient advocate tolerate ensure that questions rough the appropriateness of treatment are promptly discussed with the patients care provider, and that all treatments and concerns are promptly entered into the patients healthcare record. The patient advocate is also responsible for reviewing the patients healthcare record for appropriateness and for explaining it to the patient. An other(prenominal)wise responsibility of the patient advocate is to create and maintain an electronic log for the patient that is useable on disk to healthca re providers i This log may be of great welfare in subsequent urgent situations. The patient advocate can also assist in resolving disputes amongst patients and their healthcare provider, as well as engaging in communications on behalf of the patient in case of employment issues by approaching the employer to deliver the goods a mutually beneficial solution for the employer and the various(prenominal) employee.Where applicable compliance standards are not met, the patient advocate may conduct liaison with embodied oersight, government daysncies, or legal professionals to further negotiate such issues on behalf of the patient and family. It is the trade of a patient advocate to maintain patient privacy according to local and home(a) laws, treating all patient and family information as privileged and protected. This includes ensuring that healthcare providers communications are treated as highly confidential and privileged, whether or not those communications are specific to the patient, and that permissions to disclose information are negotiated care richly. It is also the duty of the patient advocate to follow any referrals for medical, financial, legal, administrative or other personnel to assure that the patient is always kept safe and well informed, never aband unmatchabled or misled during the process (Carlton, 1984)SWOT synopsisWhen maturation a SWOT analysis for the Patient Advocate Organization, three primary purports emerged 1. move keep conceive and confidence in the breast feeding profession among patients, their families, and the American pile 2. Leverage nurses, the single largest health care workforce, to force backher with patients, partners in their care, in accelerating surgical process improvement and 3. Stimulate reform through overlap perspectives, knowledge, and values among nurses and patients, their families, and consumer s narrowholders. A SWOT analysis focuses on internal strengths and weaknesses and external opportuniti es and threats. In this instance, these concepts have been utilise to a proposed alliance that serves these three proposed purposes. Typically, SWOT analyses are presented in tabular formats and entries are argumented in bingle of four quadrants in the table (i.e., strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats). The SWOT analysis is presented in Table1. StrengthsPurpose 1. Inspire move trust and confidence.a. Existing nurse workforce is the largest segment of the healthcare workforce b. Living up to nurses promise to represent the patient voice c. Expanding consumer recognized success (e.g., number of hospitals, evidence- found link to part/safety). d. Expanding and maturing evidence-based that establishes nurse- look-value linkages. e. Operating consumer protagonism congregations is a well-known skill for several of the major groups with which we could partner f. Convener organizations have a proven track record in working together (e.g., areas of education, competency vi ctimisation, leadership)Purpose 2. Accelerate performance improvementa. Expanding and maturing evidence-based that establishes care for-quality-value linkages b. Partnering to expand and accelerate current and future meter sets (examples follow) b.1. Experience with, and advancement of, measure development and data collection (i.e. NDNQI, AWHONN EDGETM Database, etc) b. 2. Existing national, regional, and state nursing performance measures databases (e.g., NDNQI, CalNOC, Maine and Massachusetts) b.3 Existing national quality measurement and reporting infrastructure (e.g., Compare websites) Purpose3. Stimulate reforma. Existing nurse leaders with buckram organizational skills and credible backgrounds b. Threats by animate nursing and nurse faculty shortages are widely recognized by polity realizers and health care stakeholders. c. Patients and nurses, each individually,make strong advocates together, their combined effectiveness go away likely be transformative d. Reviewing th e evidence suggests that nurses make effective form _or_ system of government advocatesWeaknessesPurpose 1. Inspire continued trust and confidence.a. Existing, numerous professional nursing organizations and specialty groups result in fragmentation and diffusion of the expertise and re arisings among nursing as a whole. May be confusing/distracting to consumer groups who join an alliance b. Creating a new legerdemain alliance may not change nursings image from that of a profession that takes orders. We may remain unable to progress access to high levels of policy making and policy makers c. Funding source for sustained support is unknownd. Participation would be voluntary (e.g., What incentivewould organizations have to provide skilful era and support for NPQA?) Purpose 2. Accelerate performance improvement a. Representation of VANOD, CalNOC, MilNOD is wishing in the convener group gathering under the planning grant b. Lacking sufficient nursing-sensitive outcome measures and resulting data to address all patients in all settings across an episode of care limits how comprehensively nursing care quality can be portrayed and might limit partnerships with certain consumer groups c. Developing standard language may be demand prior to creating additional standard measures (e.g., birth date or date of birth) d. Adding/changing bearing codes (e.g., G-codes, E-codes) to document nursing care is not in the realm of influence for nurses or consumers but together we may have more success.Purpose 3. Stimulate reforma. nurse is not typically a target of federal policies because of employee-employer relationship (rather than direct contractors with payers for services) b. Existing consumer and nursing organizations approach policy makers with multiple requests lack of unity c. Nursing inclusion within existing alliances may be viewed as duplicativeOpportunitiesPurpose 1. Inspire continued trust and confidencea. Build upon nursing social capital with consumers as th e most certain among health care professions b. Identify (empirically, anecdotally) and enhance the value-added of nursing with consumer participation and support c. Improve consumer understanding near the quality of nursing care d. Improve nursings knowledge of consumers experience of professional nursing Purpose 2. Accelerate performance improvementa. Continue quid pro quo to various alliances (i.e. HQA, KCA, QASC) providing entry into these policy discussions b. Dedicates significant, shared resources to improving quality, safety and value c. NPQA could serve as a neutral reporting entity to achieve economies of scale and scope by moving performance measurement reporting from various nursing organizations to a central source. d. NPQA sets agenda for measure adoption and collectionPurpose 3. Stimulate reforma. Disseminate practice session-based questions/issues to policy makers and thought leaders to guide funding of research or studies b. Recognize evidence that suggests that nurses, APRNs and consumer groups have opportunities to uphold their policy voice c. Vision for proactive, toward thinking policy agenda that can push (e.g. What so we urgency decision makers know about nursing performance?), pull(e.g. What do decision makers already know about nursing performance ?) and/or Partner (e.g. What do decision makers want/ charter to know about nursing performance ?)ThreatsPurpose 1. Inspire continued trust and confidencea. Consumer partners may overwhelm nursing. Nursing may be subordinate to consumer leadership. b. Potential to be barraged or criticized by specialpatient advocacy groups and specialty nursing groups who are not included in membership c. Partnership adds coordination compoundity to functional feelings of an alliance such as leadership, governance, membership collects, etcPurpose 2. Accelerate performance improvementa. Current national practice specialty organizations (AORN, AANA, ONS, AWOHNN, AACN, ACNM) have limited resources and w ill have to fix where to invest (e.g., choices will study to be made that could result in weakening NPQA) b. Data may portray low quality nursing performance with subsequent unintended consequences for nursing c. Established boards of both large nursing organizations and consumer organizations may refuse to support or may change support as leadership and resources fluctuate d. Alliances with whom nursing has a quid pro quo relationships have not universally welcomed nursing participation and have ration our involvement (e.g., dont recognize different nursing groups) e. Consumer group(s) may not recognize a learn to measure nurse performance in the same manner in which nurses do. Conflict may result (e.g. consumers may think, Did the nurse carry out the order?)Purpose 3. Stimulate reforma. absence and inattention to nursing issues/strengths in health care reform proposals b. Presence of a strong medical lobby and physician advocacy groups linked with consumers c. Established alli ance landscape and inconsistent/ unwelcoming nature among existing alliances to nursing d. Lack of awareness by policymakers of the necessity to engage nursing to realize dramatic and sustainable improvements in quality and safetyCustomer analysisBefore implementing this process in confederation Florida, it is necessary to conduct the market research to check whether this process has market relevance to this area. In other words, it is central to find out whether nodes want to use patient advocacy and then analyze if it is available for implementing it in this area via the drives of value. Basically, there are three interdependent drivers of value, including universe of discourse health, patient experience and total exist per capital, to promote the development of patient advocacy. The data published by U.S. census government shows that the population in Florida is experiencing a huge change during recently year, no matter the change is characteristic by age or race. First, as illustrated in Figure 2, we can see that from 1960 to 2040, the actual and projected census population will rapidly grow from around 50,000 to over 25,000,000 in Florida. thither are two main factors causing this phenomenon. On the one hand, there are the baby boomers. This accounts for the natural population increase. While births exceeded deaths during each of the two decades, less than half a million persons were added to Floridas population each decade due to the natural increase.On average, 118 more Floridians were born than died each day during the decade of the nineties (Census Report, 2000). On the other hand, individuals life expectancy is rapidly extended. As populations of modern societies have begun to age, the older age cohorts have require disproportionately represented. Figure 3 show that the age group over 65 and up holds the largest portion during 2010 to 2030. For example, in the area of entropyeast Florida, its population of 6.2 million, is larger than 34 of th e 50 states in 2008. About one in every three (31.2%) second Florida resident was born in the state of Florida. Meantime, in South Florida, the elderly are projected to gain almost one million (20.7% of the total) in 2030, up from 14.4% in 2010 (Ogburn, 2010). Compared to the Treasure Coast, the change is becoming more obviously as it is shown in Figure 4. The data draw above figures out that even though the population growth slowed down in recent days, South Florida continues to grow at a speed that is faster than the nation as a whole, with higher rate in the northern region.Apparently, the change population characteristic provides a huge market for the patient advocacy. A demographic trend a lot overlooked in discussions of healthcare is the changing structure of American families and households. There has been a decline in the proportion of the population that is married and a proportionate increase in the size of the single, divorced, and widowed population. The average hou sehold size has declined, and there has been a large increase in the proportion of the population that lives alone. Therefore, more and more households are knotty in the health industry to virtuallywhat extent. This means that Floridians expectations for acquiring healthcare knowledge and learning about diseases is increasing. This will admirer them know how to make decisions when they face the healthcare problem and know whether the plan recommended by physicians and nurses are available to them. Secondly, as illustrated in Figure 5, it can be shown that the race/ethnic composition of Southeast Florida was made up of 37% Hispanic or Latino.In 2000, the non-Hispanic White population represented 47% of the regional total, down from 57% in 1990. In other words, the non-Hispanic White population of Southeast Florida ceased to be the majority sometime in the 1990s, due mostly to the growth of the Hispanic population in Miami-Dade Country (Ogburn, 2010). Hence, it is very important to take the Spanish language into account when patient advocacy is established. Thirty-three percent of the South Florida population is over age 65, so for those elderly who do not know how to speak English, patient advocacy could assist them understand what the medical staff tell them about their diseases or how to take those pills. It also helps to reduce the potential abuse error when patient advocacy staffs teach those patients via their own language.Thirdly, as acute illness has declined as the pervasive type of disorder, continuing conditions have emerged as the dominant type of health problem in developed countries. Chronic conditions generally do not contribute directly to mortality, but are often cited as underlying causes of death. They are more likely to interfere with the quality of life, since they often result in some form of disability. Chronic diseases always result in more cost and more time for recovery. Some maybe even cannot be treated. Thus, patients find themse lves confused about the advantages and disadvantages of the treatment. Patient advocacy members take care to confused patients and help them collaborate with physicians and indemnity companies. Patient advocacy will offer medical assistance, insurance assistance, home health assistance, elder and geriatric assistance and legal assistance. Those types of assistance will help patients with chronic illnesses to understand their healthcare conditions in detail.The Four PsThe four marketing Ps ( ware, price, place and promotion) are important in develop the entire marketing process for every company or organization. In other words, the heart of a marketing strategy is the development of a response to the marketplace. For every business, all they need to do first is to identify the nodes needs, and then determine the price customers are willing to pay. Then, they need to identify what place is most convenient for customers to purchase the product or access the service and, finally, t hey need to promote the product to customers to let them know it is available (Berkowitz, 2011). Hence, when conducting the Four Ps analysis, there are some questions we need to figure out. Those questions are shown on Figure 6.1 (4Ps Marketing, n.d.)ProductThe important thing to remember when fling the service of patient advocacy to customers is that they have a choice. For example, for health care providers, they can rely on the customer service center in their own organization to deal with patients complains for patients, they might turn to their doctors or friends who have those treatment experience for help when they need. Therefore, patient advocacy organizations should considerable emphasis on developing a list of help service which customers really want. For example, in South Florida, as we also mentioned ahead in this paper, a large proportion of people speak Spanish as their first language, so Spanish speaking can become a selling point and add into the service list in th is area especially in a situation of establishing commutation between a Hispanic or Latino patient and an English-speaking physician. What is more, for those existing services, the organization should also pay attention to the product life cycle as well.For example, with the implementation of Obama Care, the American healthcare system has become a complex system, and it has become increasingly difficult for patients to understand and adapt, so patients fears and frustrations have continued to grow since they may get confused by the new policies and become worried about how to get their reimbursements after the treatment. In other words, customers requirements change over time. What is important and useful today may be discarded tomorrow. Therefore, marketing should forever monitor the external environment and other factors to modify the services in order to meet the customers need.PricePrice focuses on what customers are willing to pay for a service (Berkowitz, 2011). And the custo mers perception of value is an important determinant of the price charged. Customers draw their own mental examine of what a service is worth. So the pricing decision is a major aspect of marketing strategy. In the healthcare industry, the issue of price is less likely to be a concern since pricing was based on predetermined reimbursement formulas. However, in order to sustain and develop and organization, whether public, non-profit organization, private, or for-profit, patient advocacy organizations cool it need to pay attention on how they establish the price.1. The Types of Services and Complexity of Service.As customers needs are varied, there are perhaps dozens of services health advocates can provide, ranging from explaining treatment options to reviewing hospital bills, from find clinical trials appropriate to customers need, to getting their insurance company to pay a state they think should be covered. Each service should cost differently according to the time it takes to accomplish it.2. The priming and Expertise of the EmployeeJust as would be true in any service business, the more enfranchisement an advocate has achieved, the more it will cost. Further, some advocates have developed specific niches to their work that becomes a benefit to customers, who may be worth a higher salary. So obviously, a higher price should be made for these employees in order to sustain the organization.3. Geographic Location.Just as there are variations in cost for almost anything we buy based on where we live, the same is true for health advocacy services. As shown in Figure A7 (Miami Household, 2011), in Florida, take Miami as an example, households with income under 15,000 reached 25% in 2010, which was twice as many household of the entire United States. Considering the low-income rate in this area, the price should not be to a fault high when providing services. However, the danger of using low price as a marketing tool is that the customer may feel that qua lity is being compromised. It is important when deciding on price to be fully aware of the brand and its integrity. A further consequence of price reduction is that competitors match prices resulting in no extra demand. This means the profit margin has been reduced without increasing sales.PlaceAll businesses must decide how many other organizations are needed to distribute their product or service, so does the patient advocacy organization (Berkowitz, 2011). In fact, the purpose of getting any intermediary organizations involved is to provide service to customers in a more accessible way. Therefore, not only big general hospital, but also infinitesimal primary care clinic should be considered when providing services. Besides, place in the marketing mix, is not just about the carnal location or distribution points for services. Especially in the healthcare industry, it encompasses the management of a range of processes involved in catching patient advocacy to the end consumer.Pro motionsPromotion is more than just advertizement (OMalley, 2001). The promotions aspect of the marketing mix covers all types of marketing communications such as advertising, personal selling, publicity, and sales promotion. However, advertising is an important part of promotion. Generally, advertising is conducted on TV, radio, cinema, online, poster sites and via the printed press (e.g., newspapers, magazines). Different advertising channels can be used to maximize the effectiveness of advertising. For example, TV advertising makes people aware of a help service and press advertising provides more detail. This may be supported by in clinic or hospital recommendation to get people to try the service. It is imperative that the messages communicated support each other and do not confuse customers. A thorough understanding of what the brand represents is the key to a consistent message. The purpose of most marketing communications is to move the target audience to some type of action .This may include purchasing the service, visiting or calling the organization, and recommending the choice to a friend or purchasing another service that he or she may also need. The key objectives of advertising are to make people aware of the service offered by the organization, which they cannot get from anywhere else, and to feel positive about it and remember it. Therefore, when promoting, messages should gain the customers attention and keep their interest. The next stage is to get them to want what is offered. Showing the benefits that they will obtain by taking action is usually sufficient. The aright messages must be targeted at the right audience, using the right media. Take South Florida as an example, 33% of the population in this area is over age 65, so it is important to find an advertising channel to reaches this group of people. In this case, Internet advertising may not be such a good idea while newspaper and television may bring more customers to the organization instead.ConclusionAfter analyzing the market in South Florida, we can easily reach the conclusion that there are great needs to have patient advocacy in South Florida. In fact, patient advocacy is an emerging practice, and it deserves more recognition when developing healthcare business. Whether you are in private practice, serve as a hospital patient advocate or are developing an advocacy program in a managed care company, having a clear marketing plan of patient advocacy in your business region is a key factor to successfully grow your practice in the future.ReferencesAgency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Healthcare costs and financing. Research Activities. 2011. Accessed at heep//www.ahrq.gov/research/jun11/0611RA11.htm. Ad Hoc Committee on Advocacy. (1969). The social worker as advocate Champion of social victims. Social Work, April, 1620. Berkowitz, E. N. (2011). Essentials of Health Care Marketing. 3rd Edition. Jones & Bartlett Learning, LLC. Carlton, T. O. (1984). Clin ical social work in health settings. clean York Springer Publishing Company. Florida Population Census Summary 1990 and 2000.Make a difference as a patient advocate. Retrieved from http//allhealthcare.monster.com/benefits/articles/3210-make-a-difference-as-a-patient-advocate?page=2 Miami Household Income Statistics (2011). CLRSearch.Retrieved from http//www.clrsearch.com/Miami-Demographics/FL/Household-Income Ogburn R. F., 2010. Demographics and population growth in southeast Florida. South Florida regional Planning Council. Retrieved from http//www.sfrpc.com/region/demographics.htmOMalley, J. F. (2001). Healthcare marketing, sales, and service An executive companion. Chicago Health Administration Press, p. one hundred one 4Ps Marketing Mix Example (n.d.). SmartDraw. Retrieved from http//www.smartdraw.com/examples/view/4ps+marketing+mix/