Trisha Torrey

She Crossed the Line: An Ethics Violation Which Gave Us All a Black Eye

5 minutes of reading / 2 Comments / By Trisha Torrey / February 17, 2021

It was jarring. It was upsetting. And it was taken care of swiftly. One among us decided that advocacy ethics don’t apply to her. And her actions, way outside our best practices and ethics, could have caused a patient to die. This is what happened (with no names or identifiable citations, because it could have been anywhere or anyone, and those specifics aren’t the point): I was first informed of the problem last October (2020) when I heard from the Senior Investigator from the State Board of Nursing. She had identified me as a leader in the profession of independent […]

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Elevating Normal

6 minutes of reading / 1 Comment / By Trisha Torrey / January 30, 2021

Today I’m sharing with you a recent revelation, based on a conversation with my friend, Grace. It’s H-U-U-G-E! With just a slight shift in thinking and approach, it can be used to manage our lives in the midst of this pandemic, our dreams for what’s to come post-pandemic, and even more so (and far more appropriate to this blog) our advocacy and care management practices. We’ve Been Selling Peace of Mind What the smartest independent advocates among us understand is that when a prospective client calls to inquire about our services, they aren’t really asking about what services we provide.

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Looking Beyond the Headlines Can Improve Your Recognition

4 minutes of reading / Leave a Comment / By Trisha Torrey / January 4, 2021

Here we are, rounding the corner into 2021, heaving a sigh of relief that 2020 is behind us, and contemplating how we can improve our outcomes – in particular our business outcomes – in this new year. I have a suggestion for you that can help you achieve that! My suggestion begins with the fact that most of us take at least a glance at the headlines every day. Some of us more news-junkie types take more than a brief glance. So if keeping up with the news is something we’re already doing every day anyway, why not put that

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Success in 2020 Meant Finding Our Relocated Cheese

4 minutes of reading / 1 Comment / By Trisha Torrey / December 8, 2020

2020 has been a year for the books, right? Few, if any, health and patient advocates or care managers will tell you that 2020 has been a good business year, much less a good year personally. But those of you who know me and my thought process, know that I like to look at every challenge as an opportunity. And with that in mind, it’s a good opportunity to point out the important lesson that those who have survived 2020 in business have learned: We have learned what to do when someone moves our cheese. So if you are scratching

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What Aretha Franklin Can Teach Us About Communication

6 minutes of reading / Leave a Comment / By Trisha Torrey / November 18, 2020

This post asks the question: Under what circumstances do we go to the wall for our patient-clients? And when we need to go there, what’s the best approach? Scenario: Your patient-client checks in for a medical appointment and the receptionist is rude during the process. Do you say or do anything? And if so – how and what? Scenario: As you sit by your patient’s hospital bedside, a nurse comes in to change a dressing already wearing gloves. You ask her to wash her hands and put on new gloves and she cops an attitude. Do you insist? And if

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All That – But Missing Your Bag of Chips?

5 minutes of reading / 2 Comments / By Trisha Torrey / October 30, 2020

Over the years, I’ve met, discussed, emailed, pleaded, and thrown my hands up at (probably) hundreds of advocates who have never truly become professional, independent, practicing advocates. They might have told you they were/are advocates. They SAID they were in business. But their efforts were half-hearted. They didn’t ever ACTIVELY go into business. Instead they joined an organization, or set up a website, or printed business cards, or told their friends they were in business… they might even have listed themselves in a directory or two… But it was all very half-hearted. Why? Because of that idea that they weren’t

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Employers as Clients – Pushing the Right Buttons and Avoiding Landmines, Too

5 minutes of reading / 1 Comment / By Trisha Torrey / October 10, 2020

One great idea for marketing our advocacy services and acquiring new clients is to reach out to employers to encourage them to hire us on behalf of their employees. When done well, and right, it can be a win-win-win situation for all involved, and in the end, the patient-client-employee feels extremely well served. Seems pretty simple, right? Well, maybe not so… Many independent advocates have attempted such outreach in the past, only to be met with brick walls and great frustration. I think they just didn’t have enough knowledge about the HOW and the WHY. So that’s a bit of

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