Being A Patient Advocate
The definition of advocacy is public support for or recommendation of a particular cause or policy, and certainly no one would disagree there should be policies in place that call for supporting patients and doing your best for them. As a company, we prefer the synonyms to advocacy which include support, backing, promotion and championing of our patients and residents. To us, this means going above and beyond in promoting and providing the care that will optimize the quality of life of our patients and residents.
As healthcare providers, we look for opportunities to completely restore function, but when that isn't possible, it's our responsibility to identify each patient's needs and their skill levels to meet those needs. From there, we identify opportunities for improvement and design care plans to maximize the patient's strengths and abilities and prevent decline.
It's easy to objectively measure our success by looking at comparative and outcomes data, but our true success is shown through the intangible relationships that our clinicians forge with our residents. Reporting metrics can't give you all of the smiles, hugs and the celebration of goals achieved and functions regained. True advocacy means having all of the necessary skills to provide the best possible care, and our therapists are educated and trained in many clinical specialties in order to identify and address a multitude of impairments that could potentially be affecting functional decline. It's also the heart and compassion to treat patients as family and our therapists demonstrate that heart and compassion every day. At Alliance Physical Therapy Partners, we are advocates.
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