Imagine your mom has just been discharged from the hospital to a rehabilitation center after hip replacement surgery. She has the paperwork, the facility’s address – and a long list of questions. Will her insurance cover her entire rehab stay? Does she have enough pain medication until she gets settled? Will the hospital transfer her prescriptions? Are they accurate?

Scenarios like this are exactly what patient advocates are trained to help with. They understand patients’ and families’ concerns, ensure their voices are heard by medical staff and interface with care teams, insurance companies and facility administrators. They also coordinate care, set up follow-up appointments and address potential gaps or blind spots in care.

I train social workers – who often serve as patient advocates – to help people in a variety of settings, including hospitals and nursing homes. Earlier in my career, I served as a professional patient advocate supporting people in hospitals, home health and hospice.

A trained patient advocate can provide much-needed support for people on their healthcare journey. Here’s what you need to know to work with one most effectively.

The evolving field of patient advocacy

Patient advocacy emerged out of the Civil Rights Movement’s focus on individual protections and rights. In 1966, healthcare advocacy pioneer Ruth Ravich founded the Department of Patient Representation at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York – widely considered the beginning of the patient advocate role.

Historically, doctors made decisions for patients without fully involving them in their own care. But during the 1960s and in subsequent decades, a growing patient rights movement embraced the importance of informed consent for honoring patients’ autonomy. Patient advocates arose as an important voice in this movement by educating patients about their rights and helping them participate more fully in decisions about their healthcare.

For decades, “patient advocate” was a self-described title, not a standardized role. As the healthcare system became increasingly complicated, the need emerged for national standards on skills, ethics and best practices. In 2018, the Patient Advocate Certification Board established basic requirements for patient advocates and created a professional certification, which is the only one available........

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