Trisha Torrey

Patient Advocates and HIPAA

5 minutes of reading / 5 Comments / By Trisha Torrey / June 27, 2011

Lately I’ve run into questions and discussions about patient advocates or navigators and HIPAA, so it seems a good topic for today’s post. I’ll begin with a disclaimer: there’s no one on this green planet that can give you ALL the answers as they relate to HIPAA! No, not even the lawyers who live it every day. It’s complex and daunting. But there are some basics that might be useful. Here are the basics that can be useful to advocates: 1. It’s HIPAA, not HIPPA. HIPAA stands for the Health Insurance Portability Accountability Act. Notice, it doesn’t say anything about […]

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Improving Patient Relationships – What I Told the Providers

3 minutes of reading / Leave a Comment / By Trisha Torrey / June 20, 2011

To say my trek to Alaska was overwhelmingly positive wouldn’t begin to touch the real experience. Alaska itself was glaciers, salmon, midnight sun, king crab legs, and learning that in Fairbanks everyone has an extension cord popping out the front of their cars, so they can plug them in during the winter to keep the engine and oil from freezing. Who knew? But the most fulfilling experience was working with the people who attended the workshops I taught. Warm, open, receptive, fun, willing to participate and learn, they were doctors, nurse practitioners, nurses, nurse educators, dieticians, pharmacists, a psychiatrist, front

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What Do Your Patient Clients Expect from You?

3 minutes of reading / 1 Comment / By Trisha Torrey / June 12, 2011

Ilene Corina is a long-time patient safety advocate who often sits by patients’ bedsides in hospitals to keep them safe during their hospital stays. A recent blog post of hers asks the question: when a patient or caregiver hires a patient advocate, what do happens if, despite everyone’s best efforts, the outcomes are negative? Of course, the answer depends on a number of factors, including the fact that not all advocate services are cut and dried and easy to define. Further, I have to think that sometimes an advocate is hired with one set of expectations, as understood by the

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The Great Divide: The Haves and Have Nots

3 minutes of reading / 6 Comments / By Trisha Torrey / June 5, 2011

(Originally posted June 2011. Updated June 2019) The health and patient advocates who are listed at AdvoConnection are all private practice advocates; that is, they work directly for patients and the patients pay them. Their services are not covered by insurance, their services aren’t donated or free. This is how these advocates make a living – they are paid by patients or caregivers. That seems to upset some people, and lately, it seems like a number of people have taken some sort of offense at that idea – as if patients or caregivers should not have the right to seek

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Need to No – Giving Too Much

5 minutes of reading / Leave a Comment / By Trisha Torrey / May 23, 2011

One of my favorite things about patient advocates and navigators is that they are very generous, kind and giving people. They figure out what needs to be done, and they step up to the plate to do it. But one of my frustrations with patient advocates is that some are too generous, too kind, too giving. Too many have never learned where to draw limits, how to assess when they’ve taken on too much, or are in danger of taking on too much. They just don’t know how or when they “need to (say) no.” Conversations with two APHA members

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Sad News and a Heavy Heart

1 minute of reading / 1 Comment / By Trisha Torrey / May 20, 2011

Ken Schueler, perhaps the godfather of patient advocacy, a mentor to many of us, and a dear friend of mine, passed away Thursday morning, May 19, at his mother’s home in Great Neck, NY. Ken was diagnosed several weeks ago with pancreatic cancer. He attempted chemo, but had a very difficult time with it. When I spoke with him last week, he was very weak, but upbeat and hopeful the chemo would help extend his life. Ken was a man of incredible compassion and extensive knowledge. My faith in his abilities grew even more so when he consulted with my

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Craving Inside Information – from the Outside

3 minutes of reading / 1 Comment / By Trisha Torrey / May 16, 2011

I mentioned last week that a dear friend has been diagnosed with a terminal disease. I’ve known this for several weeks now, yet it still catches in my throat many times a day. My work in patient empowerment and advocacy provides chafing reminders way too often that my friend is sick and that there is nothing – not.a.thing – I can do to help him. Exacerbating my heartbreak is the fact that I am hundreds of miles away from where he lives, and I am a friend that doesn’t know his family. That means that getting information is very difficult

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