Nothing about me without me.
— Valerie Billingham
Ever since John Locke our country has been based on incorporating the concepts of Life Liberty and Property as the bedrock of our government and society. Regarding the person, Locke explained that private property is absolutely essential for liberty: “every Man has a Property in his own Person. This no Body has any Right to but himself.”
Somehow the current health care system seemed to have missed the memo. Sure we talk about informed consent before any medical procedure. Failure to get YOUR permission to put something in YOUR body or to even touch or do anything to YOUR body is a grave violation and may even be criminal assault or battery.
So how is it that surgery centers can have supply problems and substitute the medicine used for anesthesia? Do you know what is being put in your body? Does any one asked you before hand or tell you afterward? No! The New York Times headlines screams that it is “often hidden from the public.”
When things that do happen to you are recorded, should you not know about it? Or at least have a right to know about it? Yet David deBronkhardt is soon to make a follow up speech to his earlier speeches in which he has had to loudly and forcefully demand that providers “Give me my Dam Data.”
After getting the Data run around and suffering a calamitous personal tragedy, Regina Holliday, an artist, made it her mission to promote the cause that PATIENTS should be the center of their care. She creates Walking Billboards for Patient-Centered Care and has been lauded in recent Wall Street Journal reporting.
Although acknowledging that Shared Decision Making (should be) the pinnacle of patient-centered care
What is Shared Decision Making?
The Picker Institute identified eight characteristics of care as the most important indicators of quality and safety, from the perspective of patients:
• respect for the patient’s values, preferences, and expressed needs;
• coordinated and integrated care;
• clear, high-quality information and education for the patient and family;
• physical comfort, including pain management; emotional support and alleviation of fear and anxiety;
• involvement of family members and friends, as appropriate;
• continuity, including through care-site transitions;
• and access to care.
Nevertheless, The New England Journal of Medicine admits, “Although talk about patient-centered care is ubiquitous in modern health care…” rhetoric is not reality.
A Private Health Advocate working on your side, can help push the boundary closer from rhetoric to reality. By hiring a private health advocate, you make it clear that YOU MATTER! You choose to Hedge Lucky.
For more information on how Private Health Advocates may help you, contact us The Lucky Hedgehog Company, Inc. at 212-600-0234 or Info@luckyHedgehog.com.