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Patient Advantage, LLC, was created by individuals with a common vision of using a team of people who specialize in personal medical education, patient advocacy, and risk reduction for disease management. This team approach would solve many of the risk reduction, cost containment, and patient education issues faced by health care management for laypeople who are not directed in their role of their responsibility for their own health. It addresses helping patients understand how to comply with all of the things that their health care team is requiring of them.
Even before the company was organized, there was a need for the availability of personal medical education and advocacy outside of the physician office. Many patients receive information about their illness while they are semi-clothed during a hurried physician’s visit. There are many concepts they will need to internalize about their illness to deal with it effectively, and they have not been able to hear the information in a proper learning environment. Patient Advantage, LLC, Nurse Advocates will teach patients about their health issues at the work site or in the comfort of their own home at their kitchen table. Current literature show that there is a significant gap between the effort of physicians to educate their patients about their illness and the actual understanding of the patient of their illness when they leave the physician office. There is also well known research that shows that patient’s who take an active role in their care have better outcomes.
Patient Advantage has addressed these issues through a nurse centered paradigm in a face to face model. Patient Advantage programs are designed to maximize the relationship between the members and the nurse so that an environment of trust exists. In that environment, members will access the time and expertise of a health care professional that will be available to them on a regular basis. Services offered by Patient Advantage, LLC, mirror the needs identified by various state and federal agencies.
- Information and Assistance: Comprehensive and objective information and support (as necessary) for individuals and their caregivers/families about all medical, non-medical (e.g. housing) and other community services, institutional services, eligibility criteria, etc. to link them with the opportunities, services and resources available to help meet their particular needs. This is a key role that is filled by the Nurse Advocate.
- Initial screening: A preliminary evaluation with the consumer and, if appropriate, his/her caregivers/family, to ascertain the consumer's general social, medical and financial needs and to identify appropriate service options and choices. This is also a function of the Nurse Advocate.
- Comprehensive needs assessments: A comprehensive assessment (and reassessments, as necessary) of a consumer's needs and functioning and that of his/her caregivers/family that allows identification of the person's specific needs in day-to-day living in the community. The assessment is designed to evaluate from a strength-based perspective so that an individual's ability to maintain maximum independence is assured. This is also a function of the Nurse Advocate. When a needs assessment is completed, the patient or the appropriate family member is advised of the findings and given a set of choices based on the information regarding community resources that will satisfy those findings.
Service/care coordination: The appropriate and prudent coordination of services and benefits in a manner sensitive to consumer preference, enabling consumers to make informed choices about their long term care needs and balancing cost, access and quality by involving consumers in the planning, evaluation and decision making for such care. This is also a central role of the Nurse Advocate.
To learn more about how the Patient Advantage program can help your business, contact us by phone at 866-695-2213, or visit us on the web at www.patientadvantage.com.
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