School of Patient Empowerment
Knowledge is Power! It's Time to Take Control
When you live every day with pain, it is easy to fall into fall into the trap of helplessness and hopelessness. It is critically important that you increase your knowledge of the things you can do to help improve your quality of life today and over time. Become an empowered patient. After all, the most important person to your health – and health care – is you.
Being empowered means taking a more active and self-determining role rather being a passive patient in health care. Even if the idea of patient empowerment is new to you, you probably play a bigger role in your health care than you realize.
Think of how much time you actually have with medical professionals. Then think about how much of your life and time is spent making medical-related decisions. Just think about the time you spend coordinating meds, taking meds correctly, scheduling appointments (up to 20+ a year), getting to appointments, understanding labs, considering conflicting recommendations and so much more.
Becoming an empowered patient is not just a nice goal to have or achieve – it is critical in today’s medical environment, especially for patients with complex chronic diseases and constant pain who see multiple medical professionals. A key point of contact – be it a dear friend, family member, or in some case a medical case manager involved in coordination of care -- is a must. Passively listening to your health care provider is a thing of the past. Get involved or identify someone to help. You are responsible for yourself, and knowledge is the key.
Being empowered means taking a more active and self-determining role rather being a passive patient in health care. Even if the idea of patient empowerment is new to you, you probably play a bigger role in your health care than you realize.
Think of how much time you actually have with medical professionals. Then think about how much of your life and time is spent making medical-related decisions. Just think about the time you spend coordinating meds, taking meds correctly, scheduling appointments (up to 20+ a year), getting to appointments, understanding labs, considering conflicting recommendations and so much more.
Becoming an empowered patient is not just a nice goal to have or achieve – it is critical in today’s medical environment, especially for patients with complex chronic diseases and constant pain who see multiple medical professionals. A key point of contact – be it a dear friend, family member, or in some case a medical case manager involved in coordination of care -- is a must. Passively listening to your health care provider is a thing of the past. Get involved or identify someone to help. You are responsible for yourself, and knowledge is the key.
