Stay on the Watch Tower

There is perhaps no more helpless feeling than seeing someone you love in need and not knowing how to help them. That is a special torture. One that many of us face when someone we know is ill and hospitalized. It is easy to feel overwhelmed, unsure of what to do or how best to help. Hospitals are intimidating places. So much so that most of us sit quietly, step aside and let the healthcare professionals do their jobs to care for our loved ones. This is both right and wrong.

Healthcare professionals and the care they provide in hospitals are vitally important. However, neither is perfect. Both are susceptible to errors, shortages, and the like. What happens outside of hospitals- economic downturns, more people uninsured, rising healthcare costs, insurance restrictions, an increasingly aging population and sicker people – affects what happens inside hospitals. All of these influence the type and quality of care they provide. Sometimes this care is less than it should be.

So how can we make sure those we care about get good quality care in hospitals? It is not by sitting passively on the sidelines. It is by staying alert, taking notes, and asking questions. We help most when we become active health advocates.

Being an advocate for someone in the hospital is not about being belligerent, condescending or bossy. Instead it is about being assertive. What does that mean? It means identifying someone in your family as the point of contact with healthcare providers for your loved one. It is building a team of family, friends or hired assistants to stay with the hospitalized person round the clock. Being assertive means knowing who the primary physician(s) and nurse(s) are in charge of your loved ones care, making sure they know who your loved one is, and that people care about this person. It is about writing down the names, dosages, results, side effects and other information about medications, tests, and labs that your loved one undergoes while in the hospital. And more than anything it is about helping the person who is hospitalized heal by being their eyes, ears and voice in the hospital. Being an advocate means staying on the watchtower to make sure your loved one is well cared for.

This evening’s Health Watch guest, Martine Ehrenclou, author of the book, Critical Conditions: The Essential Hospital Guide to Get Your Loved One Out Alive, has a lot of insight and tips to share about how to be an effective hospital advocate. If you are interested in a step-by-step guide for the next time someone you know is hospitalized, then this might be a book for you. To find out more about the author and the book, check out this website: http://criticalconditions.com/

Health Watch is on the watchtower for our health. Make sure you do the same for someone you love. Until next time remember, “When we know better, we should do better. So pass it on.”