How to Become a Senior Citizen Patient Care Advocate

Patient care advocates work with patients and their doctors to improve communication.

According to the Society for Consumer Healthcare Advocacy of the American Hospital Association, patient advocacy is a rapidly growing field in the medical profession. Patient advocates work as liaisons between the doctors and insurance companies and the patients and their families to ensure patients receive the best care possible. While there is no one single way to become a senior patient advocate, some guidelines do exist.

Instructions

1. Earn a degree in social work, public health, or a health care-related field. It is not, strictly speaking, necessary for a senior patient advocate to have a degree, but the degree will improve your chances of qualifying for a position.

2. Work in any capacity, including volunteer, in a health-care setting which serves seniors. Since working with patients is the main job duty of a senior patient advocate, prior experience working with the elderly will give you better leverage with employers.

3. Learn everything you can about government programs related to the elderly and medical care. Medicaid and other government programs can be quite complicated, and as a senior patient advocate, you will have to deal with them extensively. You can pick this knowledge up through classes as you earn a degree, on the job working in an elder-care facility or through special classes that may be offered at local universities or hospitals.

References

• Everythingmedicalbilling.com: Patient Advocate Jobs
• Society for Consumer Healthcare Advocacy: New to the Profession

Resources

• Read this Article in Spanish