It’s truly hard to believe the holidays are upon us again. Where does the time go?
I’m sure the health care recruitment community is breathing a collective sigh of relief that 2009 is nearly over. This past year has been a difficult one for many of you. Downsizing has taken place at many of your facilities with the attendant psychological difficulties associated with that process. Many of you have not been able to hire new graduate nurses due to having few if any vacancies. Current staff may have had economic hardships because a spouse or significant other lost a job. You have probably spent a great deal of time supporting, empathizing, and being a cheerleader to both your current staff and those who would like to work at your facility or system.
Because the economy has been in such bad shape, I know you have received lots more resumes than usual for each open position, whether that position is for professionals or non-professionals. The impact of getting back to so many candidates has probably weighed heavily on you. And unsolicited resumes for future openings have doubtless been piling up as well. An embarrassment of riches, so to speak.
I hope you have been able to take some time this year to strategize for when we turn the corner so that you will be well positioned to meet the challenges that are sure to come in 2010. Perhaps you have been able to address recruitment process issues and tighten up and refine that process. I know many of you have developed robust relationship marketing programs to stay in touch with candidates, new graduates, etc. that you may be interested in hiring later on. Many of you have completed major website revisions that will position you well for the future. Some of you have dipped a toe in the social media water.
As we enter the holiday season, I know I speak for everyone at Bernard Hodes Group when I thank all of you, our friends and colleagues in the health care recruitment community, for your friendship and support over the years. The Hodes Health Care Division treasures our relationship with all of you.
We wish you the most joyous of holiday seasons and the best of everything in 2010 and beyond. Thank you for the opportunity to work with you, and the very best of luck in your endeavors going forward. It has been a pleasure and privilege to work with you and to call you our friends.
I’ve just returned from another memorable trip to Florence, Italy and some of my experiences there were such moments of grace I felt I needed to share them and put them into context as they relate to life in these turbulent times.
Our hotel was right on the Arno and viewing the glorious sunrises and sunsets over that river and the incredible play of light on the water was at times heart stopping. The moon and stars seemed to glow brighter in reflection on those still waters.
We found time to really savor our daily breakfasts in our hotel, spending an hour or so enjoying the amazing Italian bread and rolls, cheeses and breakfast meats, freshly squeezed orange juice, and wonderful coffee. Planning our day while relishing the moment and the down time.
Florence is a city best explored on foot, replete with surprises around every corner and unexpected beauty in the little art treasures like the beautiful Madonna painting on the corner of a building on an out of the way street. And the Madonna is not alone; examples of such ‘modest’ art offerings are on every street in this beautiful city.
We walked the terraced Boboli Gardens, which are attached to the Pitti Palace and are really incredibly beautiful, even in November. Our walk extended to the Bardini Gardens just beyond the Boboli, and these gardens and the Bardini villa overlook the city. You can order lunch or a beverage at a loggia there and look out at the Duomo, Florence’s famous cathedral dome, the red tiled roofs and pale yellow and peach toned buildings and the beautiful bridges across the river. We did this on a perfect sunny day, drinking in that view and the memories we were making.
Other moments of grace: the two Dominican friars in their gray habits popping into a coffee bar for an espresso, engaged in animated conversation. The sales clerks in a linens shop wrapping up some gifts we had purchased so carefully and beautifully we couldn’t wait to share with friends and family. A young employee in the basilica of San Lorenzo telling us how lucky we were to be in that gorgeous church on a day when ‘the light is perfect’ to view the treasures there. Being enthralled again by Fra Angelico’s exquisite frescos in the monks’ cells at San Marco, which surely must have inspired the monks to mediation and prayer. The courtyards at San Marco, San Lorenzo and Santa Croce. Glimpses of private courtyards found all over the city. The beautiful piazzas.
People everywhere walking their dogs. Discussing American and Italian politics with a young female security officer at the church of Santa Croce. Watching the craftsmen working leather in the leather school attached to the church. Enjoying a perfectly al dente piatto of spaghetti carbonara in a newly discovered trattoria. Spending hours in the Mercato Centrale, the central food market, sampling cheese that would make you cry and bread that you can only find in Italy and that words can never adequately describe. Stopping in the little church of Orsanmichele on our way back to the hotel and finding ourselves an audience of two for a wonderful tenor and organist practicing for perhaps a Sunday Mass. Music that truly brought tears to our eyes.
The Florence marathon was held while we were there, along with a second shorter marathon for families. We saw many families running with their dogs in the family marathon. The big marathon was inspiring as well, with several disabled entrants, including an older man who appeared to have had polio and was running with crutches. There were many older marathoners, including one ‘Papi’ who was cheered on by his family. Marathoners refusing to let other entrants quit before the finish line and cheering them on madly.
We stayed in the Santa Croce quarter of Florence and on the last day an incredible Chriskindl Market was set up in the piazza adjacent to the church, affording us a trip around Europe in a single afternoon. Kiosks from Provence, Finland, Austria, Germany, Hungary, Russia and Ireland offered Christmas ornaments, regional specialties and food. Dankes and mercis mixed with the usual grazies. The smell of lavender from Provence mingled with that of German bratwurst and sauerkraut.
What I haven’t mentioned here is what everyone goes to Florence to see-the art and museums that have so many masterpieces that after awhile you can’t absorb any more beauty. We did stop to say buon giorno to the David, went to the Medici Ricciardi palace, toured Santa Maria Novella, the Pitti Palace, and all the usual sights, although we skipped the Uffizi this trip. After a surfeit of treasures, though, my mind is still on the smaller pleasures.
Which brings me to the point of this entry: focusing on life’s small pleasures. It took this trip to help me to refocus on doing that every day, whether at work or on my off time. Life is far too short to engage in the mind-numbing busyness we get locked into every day. I had no Blackberry, no computer and no regular communication with my work life on this trip. And I avoided Internet cafes. It was curiously liberating to separate from the ‘real’ world and concentrate on enjoying those ‘smaller’ pleasures.
And so I hope to continue to enjoy the simpler pleasures of life and encourage you to do the same. And I thank Florence and its citizens for once again reminding me that life is to be savored.
A very close friend and colleague of mine is someone I fondly call the Energizer Bunny. She seeks and finds opportunities where you would least expect them, prods colleagues to aspire to bigger and better things, and is always at the center of the action; motivating, encouraging, inspiring. Things are never dull around this woman; she is a veritable whirling dervish. And the fact that she succeeds 99% of the time speaks volumes.
In thinking about my colleague’s modus operandi, I was picturing her polar opposite, the plodding tortoise. While I personally admire the calm and steady approach, in the real world, the tortoise hardly makes an impact. And that may be that in today’s world the rational, measured approach is not well positioned for success. We live in a frenetic, rapidly changing environment where for lack of a better analogy; the early bird gets the worm.
Then I began to characterize world leaders and assign them to either the bunny or tortoise category. Certainly President Obama is in the former category, while President Reagan was in the latter. Lorenzo di Medici was a bunny; simultaneously handling wars, his businesses and the city of Florence, while encouraging and developing such artists as Michelangelo and DaVinci, to name just two. It is indeed impossible to think of the Renaissance or the amazing city of Florence without the influence of Lorenzo the Magnificent.
And where do you fit in this continuum-are you totally bunny, entirely tortoise or somewhere in between? Are you a risk taker, a visionary, someone who loves to mix it up, get opinions, shape a vision, convince, cajole, influence, and get things done? Or are you content to wait for someone else to come up with the idea, and then just go along?
I would respectfully suggest that times like these cry out for the bunnies of the world. Our world is changing at nano speed. There are so many factors influencing businesses and our everyday lives, so many situations that call for quick solutions, invention, and the spark of ideas that has always kept the United States in the forefront of world innovation.
Sure, bunnies don’t always succeed, and that’s the risk you take when you decide to become one. But at least you will have tried. And you will succeed far more often than you fail if you just have the courage to attempt what may seem impossible.
So I encourage you to find your inner bunny and to change the face of your own world. In doing so, you may very well transform your business and the lives of your colleagues.
In a recruitment era increasingly geared to the digital experience, your new recruitment front office is your careers website. Gone are the days when applicants would routinely drop by the recruitment office to submit a resume. Instead, they now submit those resumes online via your careers website.
When you really did have a busy recruitment front office and that office was the face you showed the world, you made every effort to ensure that office reflected your company brand. You took care with décor and arranged furniture to provide a welcoming experience for the applicant. Staff was trained in customer service.
And while that real front office probably still exists, increasingly your ‘virtual front office’ is the first contact an applicant will have with your company. Have you been as mindful of what the virtual experience will be like and how that experience reflects the brand you have so carefully nurtured?
Start with how your site ranks when you do a Google search. Are you king of the hill or somewhere far down on the totem pole? Can your site be found at all when searching? If you find your site does not pop up with a search or is far down the list, you will need to get serious about search engine optimization as candidates often find potential employers via a Google or other search. There are many health care organizations and systems that have similar names, so you will also want to make sure your location is included on the results of the search.
Now, when you enter the company site, where is the link to careers? Is it placed in a prominent, easily found place? How many clicks does it take to get to your career page(s)?
When you get to the careers section, how easy is it to find and sort open positions? Are the job descriptions reflective of ‘generic’ jobs or are there codes, numbers, internal abbreviations that an external candidate would not understand? (Example, 6 NW1 for a nursing unit).
Is there information about your town or city, links to Chamber of Commerce, realtors, schools, and state professional licensure organizations? Don’t assume only local or in state job seekers are looking for information about your organization.
Are benefits clearly described and is the unique culture of your company represented honestly? Can you sense what it is like to work there from the information on your site? Are the photos engaging and do they show your own employees as opposed to stock photographs using models?
Now to the application process itself. You might want to go through the process yourself to see what this piece is like and to troubleshoot potential impediments to the process. Or consider hiring an outside firm to do this for you through a mystery shop. You will want to see how long the process takes, whether there is duplication (application and resume information), if there are glitches like the form timing out or information not auto-filling properly when cut and pasted from a resume. Can you upload your resume or do you have to enter all the information? Are you asking for sensitive information better left for a later stage in the process such as social security, license numbers and other sensitive data? Are applicants required to give reference names and telephone numbers at this stage of the process? Are there forms that have to be ‘signed’ or agreed to during the process?
Finally, is there any recourse for someone having difficulty completing the resume submission? A phone number clearly indicated, a virtual recruiter, something? Remember many older workers are not as comfortable as younger ones completing an application online.
All of the comments and questions above will enhance your employment brand and extend your real front office to the virtual one being used by the majority of your applicants. Nothing can replace the wonderful receptionist and the offered cup of coffee, but a seamless online process and a user-friendly site that shows off your company in the very best light go a long way in providing excellent customer service online.
Have you ever gone online and taken a look at job postings on websites — or better yet, when you are trying to fill a position, taken a look at the job descriptions from your own organization? At times they are filled with initials and acronyms that are facility specific and unknown to anyone outside the specific organization, or they have so many requirements that one is exhausted just reading them.
Job descriptions, which become the blueprint for our postings and employment ads, should be concise and accurate.
When someone reads a job posting they should be able to get a solid idea of what the job responsibilities are as well as what the qualifications are that are required to perform this particular job.
Here are a few tips for writing job descriptions:
• Keep sentences as short as possible; omit words that are not necessary.
• Leave out technical language whenever possible; explain the duties, responsibilities and requirements in a manner that even a layperson would understand.
• Use short, concise sentences or bullets points. Avoid using a narrative structure.
• Write in the present tense and use active verbs.
• Be consistent with your job descriptions; do not change the requirements for similar positions. Hiring managers at times have a person in mind for a position and want to craft the job description to match that individual’s qualifications. Internal and external applicants read these and can identify when there are discrepancies. This can lead to charges of discrimination and legal consequences.
• Focus on the essential functions of the job, not necessarily the frequency of the task.
• Avoid vague terms like facilitate, interface, may, occasionally. Use accurate terms.
• Describe and define responsibility as concretely as possible.
• Try to list responsibilities in a logical sequence.
• Use” preferred” instead of “required” for qualifications like years of experience or degrees, unless otherwise stipulated by regulatory bodies. This will allow for flexibility without being viewed as discriminatory if you alter the qualifications and repost at a later date.
If you follow these simple steps, you will be amazed at how much easier it will be for those applying for positions in your facility or system to really understand the responsibilities for the positions that are available and for which they will apply.
I’ve been pondering the so-called Jobless Recovery. Like many of you, I am wondering what the jobs of tomorrow will look like in the United States, with manufacturing essentially off-shored, most businesses contracting, and only a few industries like health care and some sectors of technology enjoying job creation.
Our unemployment rate keeps climbing (9.8% in September, 2009) and the published rates don’t take into account those who have simply stopped looking for employment or those who are underemployed. The recession has claimed 4,804,642 jobs since its start in December of 2007, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Surely when businesses are in the position of hiring again, they will tap those who have been laid off and increase the hours of those current employees who have had to take ‘furloughed’ hours or otherwise compress their work schedules.
Even the health care industry has not been immune to downsizing, layoffs and restructuring. Just this week I read about a large health care system in Chicago that is undertaking a layoff of over 300 employees. And this particular layoff is just the latest of many in the health care arena this year. What impact health care reform will have on health care employment remains to be seen and impossible to predict until we have a much better idea of what shape that reform will take. Realistically, though, reform could transform the health care employment landscape and not necessarily for the better.
All of these factors sparked an interest in me to re-read a book, written in the 90s, called Job Shift. When I opened it and read the first chapter I realized elements of it could have been written last week. The author, William Bridges, says this: “Today’s organization is rapidly being transformed from a structure built out of jobs to a field of ‘work needing to be done’.” Bridges comments further that “jobs are artificial units superimposed on this field.” He also notes that the concept of ‘jobs’ arose with the Industrial Revolution to meet the needs of a new type of workplace and that currently we are undergoing another transformation involving ‘dejobbing’.
Dejobbing is a result of many factors, including the technology revolution, which has rendered entire classifications of jobs obsolete. This holds true from manufacturing, where robotics have become common, to retail sales, which is increasingly being done online. A trip to a major department store these days in often a lonely exercises, with few shoppers and even fewer sales staff. Bookstores are increasingly empty while Amazon thrives. Online shopping is more convenient, usually quicker and you can most often get exactly what you want without spending hours browsing. What’s not to like?
Another impact factor is the tremendous number of mergers in all industries in the past couple of decades. Remember when Delta and Northwest were two separate airlines? FedEx and UPS? When Chicago had both Marshall Field AND Macy’s? There are countless examples just like these and every merger results in fewer staff in the merged company.
The lust for productivity also is a factor here. American workers are the most productive in the world. We work longer hours and more days with fewer vacation days than just about any industrialized country. Try foisting our work schedules on anyone in France or Italy. But increased productivity drives profits, despite the effect on the workforce. If you can do the same work with fewer people, why not?
Another factor is the rise in temporary employment, which has occurred over the past couple of decades. Total outsourcing of the entire employee component is now a real possibility.
Also, jobs are becoming more fluid, with job descriptions constantly evolving as responsibilities change to meet company needs. This requires a nimble and accommodating workforce.
With all these changes, what will our jobs look like in the near future? What will happen to those who have been victims of the massive layoffs in the past year? We have been talking about retraining for years, but there does not appear to be any national initiative to analyze where jobs will be in the future and how we can train laid-off workers to fill those jobs. In some industries, because of rapid technology changes and other factors, we don’t even know what the jobs of the future will be.
And how do we advise our children who are preparing to go to college? What majors should they take and what kind of careers will be there for them in the future? These are not rhetorical questions. I am increasingly concerned that the future of work is at stake.
At the moment, at this point in 2009, the hot industries appear to be health care, green industries, government and technology. But I wouldn’t hitch my wagon to any of these stars in looking to the future.
I spoke to two new college graduates recently. Both were stellar students with excellent grades and civic participation. One matriculated in civil engineering. The other graduated pre-law and completed a paralegal course, with a view towards going to law school at night and working as a paralegal (while learning more about his discipline) during the day.
Both were in for a shock. Neither one can even get an interview in their respective fields, much less be offered a position.
Experienced attorneys and engineers I know tell me that work in their fields has greatly diminished over the past year, and that like so many other industries, potential retirees did not retire, due to the great losses to IRA, 401(k) and pension programs. Even large firms and practices greatly downsized due to the rough economic climate of the past 18 months.
So where does this leave the new graduates who are hoping to find work? How do they advance their careers?
Short answer – they don’t. Right now, both of the above mentioned grads are continuing with their college jobs - one in a restaurant and the other in retail - as a means of keeping body and soul together while they pursue better options. Both are rather cheerful, and not disheartened to find that after four or five years of very expensive college, they cannot get a position.
The engineer is considering working for Teach for America, a non-profit that matches teachers with kids in American rural and low income public schools. Math and science professionals are in high demand, so he feels confident he will be accepted if he applies.
According to a recent article in the Atlanta Journal Constitution, this has been the best placement year ever for the Teach for America organizations. More than 4,000 new teachers have signed up for the corps to teach in public schools across the country. The average SAT score of the students applying for these positions was 1344, and their average grade-point average was 3.6. Top people, putting their education to use in fields other than those for which they trained. New teachers are placed in regions across the United States that are considered rural or underserved.
Teach for America is part of AmeriCorps, so these new grads may also be able to negotiate loan forbearance and even loan forgiveness if they are accepted to teach in underserved areas. Given the thousands of dollars in loans the average college grad has to repay, this is no small thing. And in many regions, the program has partnered with area universities to offer subsidized Masters degree programs in Education for interested participants.
How it Impacts Health Care
Is this where our health care professionals will go? How will we get them back into acute and long term care when we need them in a few years? So many will be on to other career paths and out of the running to serve the elderly and ill populations who need them.
It happened in the 80s and it is happening again. Those valuable, hard won placements in schools of nursing, PT and Pharmacy will not pay off in wonderful new graduates stepping into waiting jobs. Instead, those would-be RNs, PTs and Pharmacists will meander into other areas of work – perhaps unrelated to their original fields of study – and be lost forever to the health care workforce.
And although we are in pretty good shape at present, I still shudder when I look back at those BLS projections for 2015 and beyond. We will have a shortage of epic proportions. Few organizations take on true workforce planning, and many will be caught unawares when that tidal wave rolls in.
This past week, the Bernard HODES Group exhibited at the annual conference of the Society for Healthcare Strategy and Market Development (SHSMD) held in Orlando, Florida. As we know, many associations and conferences have experienced at least a 20% decline in their attendance, however SHSMD only had a 17% decrease in their number of final attendees (over 700) and they had the most exhibitors they have ever had—over 120!! Steve Mitchell, Christina Tierney and Judith Russell manned the booth and attended some of the sessions. The keynote session that created the most “chatter” was the founder of the company “Life is Good.” He had a very interesting story to tell about the startup of his company.When some attendees were asked what their CEO’s are most concerned about, attendees cited costs first, then keeping physicians engaged (not losing market share) and finally, maintaining patient satisfaction at a high level.Many attendees stopped by to discuss social media, especially since this is a very hot topic right now. They expressed the need for more strategic thinking and planning around this and benchmarking what their current online brand actually is. Christina circulated throughout this conference to actually interview some of the attendees. Please check these out:
Expo Floor Interview Janet with Witt Keifer SHSMD 2009
Shannon C Isom, Associate Director Marketing and Community Relations, Scott & White, Austin, TX
Diane Weathers, Sr. VP University Advancement & Communications, University of Medicine & Dentistry of New Jersey
Kathleen Dean, Marketing & Communication, Oregon Health & Science, University of Portland, OR
Since Facebook has become one of the fastest growing social networks in the world, many people are questioning exactly who they should befriend on this social networking site.
Facebook has become a wonderful way to reconnect with old friends, neighbors, classmates, relatives and former co-workers. But when it comes to connecting with people you work with, you might want to give friending a second thought.
According to a recent issue of HR Advisor, a survey conducted by OfficeTeam, a staffing service that places highly skilled administrative specialists, befriending people at work, especially your boss, can be very awkward. A phone survey with randomly selected executives from some of the nation’s largest employers, indicated that 48% were uncomfortable with being friended by someone they managed and 47% of them felt the same way about being friended by their bosses.
The feeling of discomfort extended beyond employees and bosses to include peers, vendors and clients.
What execs said about their comfort level in friending …
Boss
Co-workers
Reports
Clients
Vendors
Very Comfortable
19%
13%
12%
07%
06%
Somewhat comfortable
28%
38%
32%
34%
23%
Not very comfortable
15%
13%
15%
17%
24%
Not comfortable at all
32%
28%
33%
33%
38%
Don’t know
06%
08%
08%
09%
09%
“The line between personal and professional has grown increasingly blurred as more people use social networking websites for business purposes,” said Robert Hosking, executive director of OfficeTeam. He said that managers, even if they aren’t going to connect with business contacts on social networking sites, need to be prepared to deal with requests for friending and such.
Hosking advises managers and employees to familiarize themselves with all the different options and controls social media sites offer. Use privacy settings and create different friend or contact lists to control how—and with whom—information is shared. “Individuals should classify their professional contacts into a ‘work’ list and limit what personal details this group can view,” said Hosking.
Here are some common Facebook situations professionals may encounter—and some recommendations for handling them:
• An Embarrassing photo of you surfaces on the site. Untag yourself and change your privacy settings so photos are viewable only by your close friends. Be aware of situations that could be potentially embarrassing when you are being photographed.
• Someone makes a friend request but you don’t want to connect with them. You may have to accept requests from co-workers to avoid slighting them, but add them to your “work” list and adjust the privacy settings so you can separate your work contacts from your personal contacts.
• You’re considering including your boss in your friends list. Think twice before reaching out to your boss. It could become very awkward for both of you.
• Joining a variety of groups. You should only join groups that really interest you. Keep the groups you join separate between your personal life and your professional life. Be very careful of comments you make on groups, especially your professional ones; people you come into contact with in the course of your job may be a members of the same groups.
• Fan Pages. Fan pages on Facebook are visible to anyone who can view your profile, avoid becoming a fan of any page you are uncomfortable sharing with anyone in your network.
• Online quizzes. Stop and think for before taking online quizzes and posting the results to your Facebook page. Do you really want your professional contacts to know which Disney character you most resemble?
• Political and religious views. Political and religious views can potentially create uncomfortable situations and slant the way people think of you. Therefore they should only be shared with your personal contacts and not your professional contacts.
Bottom line here-enjoy your networking on sites like Facebook, but be savvy about it.
Boomer Time!
Yes that is me - one of the 78 million born from 1946-1964. Along with our other traits, we are classified as the Sandwich Generation. Stuck in the middle to care for our children, parents and, if we are lucky enough, grandparents. I was blessed to assist in care decisions for a great grandmother, as well as grandparents.
A Nurse – so I know it all, right? Wrong!!
My grandmother thought I knew it all! It is so different to be on the patient and family side of the bed. We as health care professionals think we remember what it is like on the patient and family side of life in our practice. From my perspective, this is not so. Health care functions in silos. One area, the clinical side, is rarely concerned with the financial or payment side. I understand hospital settings very well. I have very little knowledge of the long- term care world.
Long-term Care - the unknown odyssey.
So much to know. So far behind.
The Daddy - He was and is just the best! To be honest, he is not even my biological dad. No one would ever know. He raised me from a baby barely walking and is still teaching me today. You see, he is 73-years old and has Alzheimer’s. Looking back, personality changes had already occurred 16 years ago when my son was born. He was emotionally disconnected. He has always looked healthy. And other than his degenerating brain, is healthy. He is not on one medication, and has perfect blood pressure!
In the beginning it was so frustrating for him. He noticed the changes… slow changes. He started to become overwhelmed in activities with multiple steps. Packing - pack, unpack, and pack. Money concerned him, but he was not sure why. He eventually forgot how to work the remote control for the television, how to dial the phone, how to cook. The man was a great cook. He tried to motivate his brain – crossword puzzles and a dictionary stayed on the kitchen table. Eventually, slowly, cognition declined. Even with my frequent visits, it become apparent he could not live independently. My family became more concerned and frequently fretted about next steps. We could not be sure he was eating. We knew he was not bathing regularly. More serious, he lived in an attached condo. He could forget and leave the stove on or a burner with a pan, causing a fire. We had great concerns he could harm himself or others, or someone would take advantage of his condition.
He and my mother were married for 26 years and then divorced. Still bonded, my mother chose to move him to Tennessee where she lives, to care for him. Big commitment, right? My sister was also there to support as a caretaker.
He became part of my mother’s neighborhood. Walking was his thing. He would walk and walk and walk. He would stop and attempt conversations with the neighbors. The community came to know him, love him and look out for him.
Moving him to my mom’s was the easy step. Next came time for long- term care. This decision alone is stressful. When is the right time? The family members feel guilty and helpless. Ok, so that is one side - the family connection, feeling like you are abandoning a loved one. The other side is the unknown minutia of red tape, regulations, and facilities – in other words the real world of health care and the reason health care reform is so critical.
We hired an elder care attorney. While I know many cannot afford this, we could not either, but did. We chose to hire the attorney simply to guide us on the best decisions for my dad. It is amazing, however, the attention and response we received from health care representatives once they learned an attorney was representing my dad’s interests.
I consider our family responsible. We had records and documents and yet, still never seemed to have the right documents. What about those who do not? Maybe records and belongings have been lost in catastrophic events like Hurricane Katrina.
There were so many issues and decisions. What kind of facility is best? How do we pay and what is the financial impact to his long-term care that will be needed? He could live another 15 years. My dad is a vet. He was not in active duty, but was a paratrooper. Hence, he ended up with some chronic back issues. Of course there are no records to document this injury due to a fire at the VA records facility in St. Louis. My dad could not speak to this – no memory. One recommendation – keep every document!
This is not an unusual story. It is happening to thousands of families as you read this. During this experience with my dad, one thought repeatedly entered my mind. How do people that do not have family or significant others with their best interests at heart survive in our health care world? Everyone needs a personal advocate. Every patient is a person with a history, a story, and is a human being who deserves the very best treatment at the end of life. But not every patient is lucky enough to have that advocate. Certainly the guiding principle of assuring that advocacy should be an integral part of health care reform
