In this episode of The Roads Podcast, Kristen from Ingham County Medical Care Facility and Jill Clauser, social worker with AdvisaCare, discuss how families can advocate for a loved one in senior care. Drawing from decades of experience in healthcare and elder services, they share practical advice for navigating the healthcare system, preparing for medical emergencies, and helping loved ones receive the care they need.
The Roads Podcast Episode 1: Advocating for Your Loved One in Senior Care
Listen to the episode
Episode Highlights
In this episode, Jill and Kristen discuss practical ways families can advocate for their loved ones while navigating the senior care system.
Topics covered include:
• Why maintaining a relationship with a primary care physician is essential for coordinating care
• How caregivers can stay organized with appointments, medical records, and important health information
• Using tools like MyChart and other patient portals to stay informed about care and test results
• The importance of maintaining an accurate medication list and using one pharmacy when possible
• Common barriers seniors face when accessing healthcare, including transportation and specialist wait times
• Community resources that can help families navigate aging services and support systems
• The role social workers and case managers play in helping families manage care transitions
Key Takeaways
Taking small steps to prepare ahead of time can make a significant difference when navigating healthcare decisions for a loved one.
Important things caregivers can do include:
• Know your loved one’s primary care physician and any specialists they see
• Keep an updated list of medications, allergies, and diagnoses
• Maintain copies of insurance cards and important medical information
• Set up access to patient portals when available
• Start conversations early about what matters most to your loved one and their care preferences
Being prepared can reduce stress during emergencies and help ensure your loved one receives the care and support they need.
## Episode Transcript
Prefer to read instead of listen? The full episode transcript is available below.
Hello, this is Kristen, welcome to The Roads podcast.
It’s Jill and Kristen, actually.
Jill is here with AdvisaCare and I’m going to let her introduce herself in a second.
My name is Kristen.
I’m one of the employees here at Ingham County Medical Care Facility.
I’ve worked here 19 years.
I am a nurse as well, but been in senior care most of my career.
I started off as an aide at Eaton Rapids Hospital way back when, but other than that I worked
in senior care.
So I just have a lot of knowledge and experience and I’ve lived in Lansing for 30 years and
so very familiar with this area and both Jill and I are pretty active in the different fields
and opportunities that seniors have in the Lansing area.
So I think we’re going to be a great team for you to listen to and get some knowledge
from which is the goal of this podcast.
So our goal is to help you learn about services and really not just services but how you can
make an impact on your own care and your loved one’s care when it comes to senior care.
So Jill, can you introduce yourself please?
Thank you.
Hello, I’m glad to be here.
My name is Jill Clauser.
I work for AdvisaCare.
I am a social worker, so you have the power team of the nurse and the social worker here
and I have been working in elder care myself for over 20 years and both of us have worked
in this field, but we’ve also are also caring for our own families.
So we are not only helping people take this journey, but we’ve also are taking it ourselves
of how to get best care for the people we care about and how to navigate the systems
that may not always be the most user friendly, but we’re going to try to share some tricks
to the trade with you guys today to help you be ever better advocates for your parents
or your loved one also or yourself.
So we’re excited to start this.
Yeah, we’re really excited and we’re excited to be doing it together.
Like I said, between Jill and I, you’ve got about 40 years of experience and so yeah,
it is so we’re happy to be here.
So this is our launch party today, our first podcast.
So today we’re going to be talking about being an advocate for your loved one.
We thought we’d start with that and then we’ll work our way through the process of senior
care because there’s a lot to go through.
So there’s a lot.
Yeah, there’s a lot.
We really want to start at the beginning and just talk about what it means to be an advocate
for your loved one, you know, and being on an empowered journey, not just a journey of
this is something I have to do, but being empowered and feeling empowered and I love
that word empowered.
Creating confidence and caring for your loved one.
And so that’s what we’re going to be talking about, not just today, but as we move forward
through the podcast, really that just empowered journey, you know, knowledge is power.
So okay, so we’re going to start with the basics today.
So Jill, I’m going to have you start off with just telling the folks like how like we’ll
start with the PCP because that’s usually where the journey starts, right?
With the PCP.
It really does.
So as a primary care doctor, primary care physician, you know, their roles have changed
over the years and I learned this myself is, you know, we need to follow up with our primary
care doctors.
We need to visit them yearly, especially under Medicare rules of they want to see you once
a year for at least your Medicare checkup.
But also if you ever do need to go into rehab, the hospital to get into home care, having
your care, knowing who you are and can write orders is very important because it will create
a barrier if you don’t have a doctor.
And I’ve made this mistake myself was like, Oh, I thought I’d been to the doctor then
it’d been like seven years.
So it’s very important, especially if you’re, I’ll refer to, you know, working with your
parents a lot is knowing who their doctors are like, Hey mom, what doctor do you go to?
What specialist are you seeing what, you know, having starting to paint that picture of what
care your loved one is getting or not getting.
And I’ve also found out myself, especially if they need to see a specialist, one of the
barriers is there’s such a, there’s such a link of when you’re supposed to be referred
to them to when you actually get into them.
It’s going max.
Yeah.
I don’t know if you’re experiencing that.
Yeah, for sure.
I mean, I think I had, well, not me personally, but my loved one had an appointment scheduled
for a, see like a neurologist was, or the referral was made in November and the appointment’s
made for May.
Yeah.
It’s nuts.
Yeah.
So accessing healthcare has become a real challenge, I think for many people, and I
think it becomes very frustrating for some of our folks of they just don’t go like, Oh,
that’s six months out.
Doesn’t seem important.
I’m not going to follow through or they get frustrated with the phone system or they get
frustrated because they’re in pain now.
So helping our loved ones be proactive and making appointments, keeping appointments
is very important because otherwise you get lost in the system sometimes.
Sure.
And you don’t want that because once you’re lost in the system, it’s really hard to get
back and here’s without going to the hospital, everyone wants to avoid.
And I would say to you, if you’re an advocate or a caregiver of someone and you can’t go
to that appointment, see if there’s a way that you can call in at a certain time and
just ask the question, ask questions or, you know, just make sure your loved ones showed
up, that they got there, that they made it to the appointment and just see if there’s
anything, you know, additional that the doctor didn’t cover or that you need to know, like
what if the doctor ordered an MRI or what if the doctor ordered a chest x-ray or something
like you need to know what that next follow-up appointment is so you can again follow up
with the person advocating for that appointment that’s gone to.
Yeah, absolutely.
I think that’s a great segue into, a lot of the doctors will do teleconferences now.
They will let you call in when my son was at his doctor’s appointment, his dad put
the doctor right on speakerphone so I could ask all the questions I wanted to ask and
what was going on at that point in time.
And you did a great segue into that.
And the other thing is, once you know them things, is talking to the doctor’s office,
is there an electronic chart that we can get on?
My chart is very popular where I’m at, I think it’s where I’ll use the same thing here.
It’s a great way for, with permission, for you to see exactly what diagnosis we’re dealing
with.
You can see med lists, you can see follow-up appointments, you can see test results all
in real time.
And that’s actually, I’m not always a big fan of technology, but I’ve actually learned
to love that technology of, hey, I can just pull up the app up on my phone and see, okay,
wait a minute, I have an appointment two weeks from now and it really helps keep, especially
for our seniors who might get forgetful or just too much information coming at them at
once where you can go, oh, wait, look, here, Mom, this is where we’re supposed to be and
what we’re doing.
A thousand percent.
I think, too, a lot of times, like when my little one goes to the doctor, it’s a lot
of questions about when was this last checkup?
When did you last go to the dentist?
Because the dentist is important, we’re going to talk about that in a second.
When was the last time you saw the cardiac doctor?
When was the last time you did this or that?
And like you said, it can be confusing for any of us, but for our parents or our elderly
folks, sometimes that can become increasingly difficult and the answer becomes, I don’t
know, or I haven’t gone in years or whatever when you just went.
And so it’s important and it so helps with time and you only get so long with the doctor
or you only get so long with the nurse practitioner or whoever you’re seeing and to spend most
of that time trying to figure out when other appointments have been or what happened at
those other appointments, it’s just going to take up valuable time that you have with
your family.
So being an advocate also means keeping all that information straight and like you said,
if you can pull up that portal, oh my gosh, the portals have everything now, which is
so great.
It really is, like you said.
You’re not always a fan of technology, but man, and I mean you can pull things right
up.
What did the test x-ray say?
Oh, well hold on, I can pull it right up.
And I think when we’re at the doctor’s office, we get so much information thrown at us that
we usually grab 10% of it and then we leave going, I don’t know what happened or we forget
to ask the questions we want to ask.
And I found with my doctors personally is I can send them an email through that portal
and they’ll answer me, which saves me a trip to the doctor, saves me a co-fee of going
in if you have that coming out, and I think they like it too because then they can answer
it in real time and they just move on with their day versus waiting to get back in.
And or trying to call, call and leave a message or have their assistant call you back or whatever
and this way you can just say everything you need to say in the email.
I love them.
Oh my gosh, I’d use them more than I realize, but yes.
And to communicate with your PCP or a specialist too, that’s the good thing.
If you’re within the same groups that use the same network, it’s really nice because
they can also pull it, which is nice.
And it works for med refills, a lot of times it’ll work for your med refills too.
Or if you’re at the doctor and they say if it doesn’t get better, you can send them an
email and then they’ll call in a different script for you and it’s all right there for
you versus, especially this time of year.
No one wants to be in the car going, I’m giving it out, right?
This has been such a brutal winter, who wants to go outside?
Oh my gosh.
Okay, so let’s talk a little bit about those, some of those details.
So when it comes to, you know, getting in the portal, that’s one thing.
But even when you’re, if you’re at appointments or whatever, what’s the information that as
a, you know, as a advocate for your loved one or as the caregiver for your loved one,
what are some of the important things that you need to know about that person?
So when things do happen, you’ve got the information right there.
So we kind of talked about some test results, but what other things, other than like birth
date?
Birth date.
Every time you call, they’re going to ask for a birth date, so just be prepared.
I think it’s important to know someone’s insurance.
I don’t think a lot of folks know that, in and out of network, we’ll talk more details
about later, is a very important term of what is available to your loved one, what cost
will be, and what is available.
So knowing those things, because that can, your insurance can create a barrier to care.
And I know it’s overwhelming.
We all, when we just had traditional Medicare, it was very, very easy for our seniors.
Now it’s Medicare Advantage plans and Part A’s and B’s and C’s, and it gets all very
at a time.
So I think that is important to know though.
Social security.
Social security numbers, and knowing, and we talked about this earlier, knowing what
our loved one, what’s important to them.
Yes.
What is important to them.
Everyone’s at a different stage in their life, everyone has a different comfort level.
Everyone looks at the doctors and the hospitals differently.
I avoid them like the plague.
Some people find that to be comforting.
They want as much doctoring they can get.
Is that a word?
I’m making up words now.
No, I think that’s a good word.
I’m making up words now.
That’s a good word, no.
And I think too, what’s important to them may change on the daily.
Like today what’s important to me is that my hip hurts, but tomorrow what might be important
to me is I have to get to the grocery store or whatever.
And so you’ve got to kind of roll with the waves on that one as to what’s important to
them.
But I think the bigger picture of what’s important to them, and again, we’re going to get to
a lot of this in some future podcasts, but knowing what’s important to your loved one
is going to make your life so much easier.
Because if your loved one says, I’m done with all this noise, well then stop making appointments.
Guessing what their wishes are is not a good place to be in, so having the tough conversations,
no one likes to have them, but we all need to have them because it prevents the crisis.
So when the crisis does come, you at least know what direction to turn.
And as an advocate too, I would say you’ve got to know that the crisis is going to, it’s
not a matter of if, it’s a matter of when.
So being prepared is the biggest thing that I think we can pass along today.
Just being prepared and knowing the answers to some of these things that we’ve already
talked about, that we’re going to talk about still today and in some podcasts, but having
the answers and being at the ready just makes you feel a lot more comfortable when the crisis
does happen.
Don’t have to go, gosh I don’t know.
So I think today we really want to talk about knowing the basics, so if you end up in the
ER or you have to call the ambulance, at least having allergy lists, med lists, knowing who
the doctors are.
I don’t know if you’ve ever run into this, I run into people who are like, yeah I’m not
going to go because if I get an ambulance I’m going to get that bill.
What does that look like?
Right.
That seems to be a bigger barrier for folks is getting to the hospital or once I get there
how long am I going to be in the ER, how am I going to be at home, a lot for folks
that is a concern.
Well I get admitted, what happens to my animal?
Oh my gosh.
What about some other barriers, I mean yes those are barriers for sure, but what about
just in general, what do you see out, Bill’s way more versed in the home care world, but
what do you see for people who maybe are in a crisis but just in general, what are some
barriers?
You know I think some of the barriers we see with some of our elderly people is really
how much they’re hearing, I always go back to ears, I always go back to ears, teeth and
eyes.
Okay.
I know it sounds kind of weird but what I can see, what I can hear, what I can vocalize,
what I’m understanding because I think some, I do, you know we get frustrated if we can’t
hear what’s going on so we run into that elderly person who just nods and smiles and nods and
you know, have they been, do their hearing aids work, have they been, got the batteries
fixed, have they gotten them cleaned out, like that’s a key piece, you know, can they
see, can they see, you know, the documents they’re signing, can they see their pill bottles
and what they’re taking, I mean you probably see this as a nurse, how often are people
getting their meds mixed up, that’s a really tiny print.
How many tiny white pills, how many tiny round white pills do you have, like you think they
can, but there’s not, when you look in the pill box, you know, there’s five white round
pills and then, you know, usually an orange and a blue, we’ll throw an orange and a blue
and that’s it.
But yeah, and you know, getting to appointments in general can be tough, so what if you’re,
what if you’re someone who’s working and you, you know, have a loved one who has an appointment,
like I said, that telehealth thing is huge, you know, if there’s any good things that
I would say that that’s one of them, because it’s used a lot now, but you know, the eyes,
the teeth and the hearing, those are all huge, because if they can’t eat, they can’t see
and they can’t hear, like you said, what they’re signing or what’s going on with them or whatever,
those are going to be huge barriers to care in general and not only that, but it’s going
to lead to a crisis, because they can’t, they’re not able to, you know, actively engage, can’t
see.
Yeah, and I think a lot of times we don’t always know where someone is at, cognitively,
mentally, because we’re asking questions.
Again, they’re doing the smile and the nod, it’s not that they don’t know, they just are
understanding what we’re asking them.
Exactly.
And with a lot of the new technology, there’s lots of devices out there we can use, but
starting with your loved one of looking at the basics of okay, what appointments aren’t
we going to because it’s a barrier, whether it’s transportation or I don’t want to bother
someone to take me or I call and I can’t navigate the phone system because the whole
press one, two, three, four, five, I would love to know the date of how many people they
lose because they get…
Or how many people just press zero, because honestly, that’s what I do sometimes, I’m
like, I’m just going to press zero.
I’m going to press zero until I get somebody, yes, absolutely.
I think two and later podcasts, we’ll have some transportation folks come in and just
talk about what does this look like if you need a ride, like what does this look like
I’ll be honest, my loved one is my husband and he does take Spectran and it has gotten
so like second nature to use now.
But honestly, I’ve never, I’ve always lived in a rural area.
I grew up in a rural area.
I’ve always lived in a rural area.
So using a bus wasn’t familiar to me at all, just because I didn’t grow up in an area where
there was a bus system per se.
So now to live in East Lansing where there is a bus system, it’s something to learn.
And it can be a little daunting.
I’m not going to lie.
There’s so many resources out there.
And so those, all those things are, you know.
Yeah, and I think there’s, if you’re listening to this podcast, hopefully there’ll be people
listening and you’re in that moment of, I don’t know, there are resources out there.
You can call for free.
That will help you.
TCOA, Tri-County Office on Aging, Department on Aging, they all have information referral
specialists of, hey, we’re just kind of stuck here.
Can you help us find someone to help with transportation or the Meals on Wheels or,
oh, you know, help with the Medicare, the MAP counselors.
And we’re going to talk about all these things.
But there are lots of resources out there for folks who are navigating health care.
It’s just a matter of reaching out and a lot of them just making the phone calls.
Yeah, and Tri-County Office on Aging, huge resource for people.
I think too, isn’t there in our community, you might know this better than I,
social workers that literally, I, you know, my husband’s been in the hospital before.
I don’t know what we would do else.
Do you need this?
Do you need that?
How can I help?
They have all the resources.
That’s their job.
There are social workers that are in a lot of our entities.
If you’re in the hospital, ask for a social worker, ask for the case managers.
They’re the ones that are supposed to be helping you navigate this.
Look at what services can come into the home,
whether they need to go to rehab.
They are there to answer your questions, to kind of be that communication piece between
the doctor and what’s going on with your care.
Because when you’re in the hospital, you know, the doctor is going to make rounds.
And if you’re not sitting there, you don’t get involved.
You’re going to miss that meeting.
They do the round and they move on to the next.
Yeah, so ask for your social workers, your social workers in your rehab centers
and your nursing homes.
There’s some really good ones here.
Yes.
Your home health care agencies and your hospice agencies
also have social workers to help deal with whatever stress you may have going on.
They don’t do clinical stuff, but you know, things that are anything from the meals on wheels
to funeral planning to we’re worried about the kids because they don’t know how to explain
hospice to them or palliative care.
So there are some really good tools in place and folks in place.
Sometimes you just have to ask.
And I don’t think either one of us can stress more like to get some of these things going.
This part seems like a lot, but it’s the most important part.
Without an advocate or if you are the advocate without having all the information that you need,
it can make life a lot harder.
And like we said, when the event happens, that’s not the time to figure out how to get into
someone’s MyChart or know when their last CAT scan was or MRI or doctor’s appointment or
med changes or like that’s not the time, you know, because now it’s kind of too late.
So there’s nothing more frustrating when you’re worried about your loved one.
You got someone coming in and asking you these questions and you’re going to be like,
yeah, put my loved ones in pain.
Let’s focus on that.
So it’s good to just have that stuff.
If they put it in a folder where they take pictures of it, whatever you have with you.
Yeah, most of us in today’s world have smartphones.
So use your notes section or like Jill said, take photos like write out a med list and take
a picture of it.
And then every time a med gets updated, update that and take a new picture
and keep it in a spot in your phone.
Those are all things that are going to help your stress because like Jill said,
when you’re in the hospital or have someone that’s in pain, the last thing you want to do is be
is have to figure out all of these answers to questions.
Why not just be with your loved one?
This is going to allow you to do that.
So get the information, have it handy.
If there are barriers, I’ll reach out.
Like Jill said, DOA, the case managers of the hospital are invaluable.
They’re amazing.
And again, a lot of our case managers, they know what’s going on in the world.
And they can say, OK, well, I’ve never had home care before.
OK, well, tell me what’s important to you.
Do you want this?
Do you want that?
Because home care is all for different things.
Do you want a home care that’s close by your house?
Does it not matter to you?
All that kind of stuff.
Very, very.
What else can we talk today, my friend?
We can talk about all kinds of stuff.
Let’s go back to the PCP a little bit.
I just feel like that’s such a huge thing.
What if your loved one doesn’t have a PCP advice?
Well, that is difficult.
We’re running into that as a barrier for some of our folks who are trying to get home care.
We have to have the PCP in place.
Can you help with that?
We can help with that.
Again, it’s a scheduling out thing of when you call around and ask to set up
as a new patient at a PCP, they’re scheduling a couple months out.
So if you’re in that crisis, you’re kind of in trouble.
But there are also visiting physician groups that will come right into the home.
Yes.
I don’t know if people know that.
I don’t know if they know that either.
That’s a great thing to talk about.
So there are some companies where that visiting physician can come right into the home,
and usually the timeline’s a lot shorter than a standalone doctor’s office of getting in there.
So we’ve referred a lot out to them, especially if someone’s coming out of the hospital or coming
out of rehab, one more appointment going out just isn’t high on something they feel like they can do
yet.
Agree.
So a lot of times-
And the transportation thing.
And then earn transportation.
This takes it right out.
You don’t need transportation because they come to you.
I think a lot of people think, oh, doctors don’t do that anymore.
But they do.
There is doctors that do that.
They do.
And they can bring in the lab work.
They can bring in the x-rays.
They can bring a lot of things into the home.
And even if it’s a temporary thing of, you know what, I’m just going to have them come in.
And then three months from now, I really want to go to doctors, so and so.
I forget things about them.
It’s a nice bridge.
We don’t want you to be without medical care.
So your PCP really drives your care.
They order the specialists.
They set up all your orders.
They set up your meds.
So it’s important to keep up with that.
And I think there’s a yearly visit under Medicare that is covered.
So go do that yearly visit.
And required.
Is there one that’s required?
I think it is required.
So they can lease the eyeball you, see you, see what’s going on.
Have to meet your doctor.
I’ve never met mine, but I know I have one.
I’ve always been a nurse practitioner.
So-
Yeah, that happens.
It happens a lot.
When you see that nurse practitioner, just know the office, right?
And so that way, if you are with your loved one and you’re in the hospital,
what doctor do they see?
Oh gosh, I don’t know.
But they always see the nurse practitioner, you know, Kristen.
And okay, well, what office is it?
And you tell them and they can call and figure out who the doctor is.
Because that does happen more and more now that you see a nurse practitioner or a PA
instead of a physician.
Yeah, and always make friends with nurses because you can always make friends with nurses.
That’s right.
Always make friends with nurses.
Because they are the best advocates.
Wherever you’re at, the nurse will figure it out and get back to you.
Okay, what about some of the…
Is there any other thing that you can talk about when it comes to my chart?
I think one of the things as an advocate, just from a nursing perspective,
that you should watch for are they’re going to do vitals at every visit.
So see what those are.
I mean, some people think, oh, you know, whatever,
know what the normal ranges are for blood pressure.
And again, the nurse, the MA, which is the medical assistant in the doctor’s office
sometimes, the doctor, they can all explain that to you.
Oh, this is what the range is.
So that way, if you’re at the doctor’s office,
they can give you a range of what that blood pressure is.
And that’s going to help you because if you take a blood pressure at my year
and all of a sudden it’s 256 over 120, that’s way too high.
Okay, so that’s the time to call the PCP and go,
hey, my mom just had her blood pressure taken at my year
and this is what it said.
Is it going to be accurate at my year?
Maybe, maybe not, but it’s worth a check because that’s super high.
So just thoughts.
I think the med list is important because I’m going to let you talk to that
because I think there’s so many folks that end up in the ER because
put their meds wrong, took the wrong dose.
So if you’re the advocate, I would say it’s super important to get a med box,
whether it’s a.m., noon, p.m. or a.m. and p.m. or whatever.
I do my husband’s meds every Sunday.
That’s just part of my Sunday.
That’s what I do.
I get them all ready for the week and he doesn’t have to worry about it.
They’re all done.
And I think that’s important, too.
Refills, because how do you know if you need refills?
Aren’t usually just automatically done for you.
So you’ll know like on Sunday, you’re like, oh, no,
I don’t have enough to get through the full week.
I’ll get that refill ordered for them.
A lot of places deliver, which is so awesome now.
Walmart delivers, I think Target delivers.
So you get your prescriptions filled there, sign up for delivery.
It’s worth it because then they just deliver them to your loved one.
And then when you go back on Sunday, the pills are there.
So those are huge because running out of medications,
not taking certain medications or doubling up on medications are definitely things.
And do you find like if you go to specialists,
are the specialists talking to the PCPs and are we getting meds mixed up?
Because are the doctors all communicating with one another?
I’m asking you this as a nurse, right?
You go to one doctor, they give you one pill.
You go to another doctor, they give you a different pill.
And suddenly you have three different pills to lower your blood pressure
and you’re falling down.
And no one’s catching that, right?
So usually what you want to do is get your meds filled at the same location.
Don’t get your meds filled one day at Target, one day at Walmart.
Get your meds filled at the same place because that pharmacist there
is the one who should be watching for that and saying, hey,
this is way too many medications for you, John.
I know we get our meds filled at Walmart.
They’ll even call the doctor’s office for you,
which is really nice to say, hey, they need a refill.
There’s no refills on file.
They need a refill and they’ll just take all that off your plate, which is so nice.
But that’s why the med filling is so important because if you’re the caregiver,
you can be like, wow, there’s four meds here for blood pressure.
I feel like that’s too many.
It is too many.
And because some of them are going to do the same thing.
Now, your blood pressure is way too low, which can lead to falls.
It can lead to congenital fatigue, all these things.
Same thing with anything like that.
Pain medications.
Oh, that’s another one.
Interact with medications.
So again, you want the same pharmacist looking at your medications.
You don’t want meds from different pharmacies because the pharmacist, too,
is knowledgeable to that stuff.
I think there’s a consistency.
If you’re using the same folks, they get to know you.
They’re invested in who you are.
They’re invested in your loved one.
Absolutely.
There’s a relationship there when you walk in and they’re like, oh, hey, Jill,
how’s it going, blah, blah, blah.
I think that really leads to better care because then you’re comfortable
talking to them if you do have questions.
Absolutely.
Some of us do get intimidated of talking to someone we don’t know.
I’m not one of those people, but other people.
For sure.
And I think especially like we kind of said at the beginning of the podcast,
if you don’t have a lot of confidence in what’s going on with your loved one,
that’s when that happens.
Or they’ll say, oh, we’ll just fill all these meds before you leave the hospital.
Great, because you have the meds to go home.
However, that doesn’t mean that you add them to the meds you’re already taking at home.
That’s the issue.
So usually what I do is if my loved one’s in the hospital and they want to call in meds,
I tell them the pharmacy because I get my meds delivered
because I don’t need another trip out.
And they can be the ones to say, oh, I see they’ve added on Norco.
You’re already taking X, Y, and Z.
So you can’t take both.
So we’ll call your primary care and see which one.
Well, that’s where also that primary care can be the one.
Yeah, so always ask questions.
So always ask questions.
I want to leave us with a little wrap-up here of a to-do list for folks because we,
Kristen and I could talk all day.
We sure could.
But we want you to leave with valuable tools and things of like, okay,
these are the next few easy steps I’m going to take.
So as I’m working with my loved one, I’m going to be prepared or at least start
putting that groundwork into place of not having to scramble in the ER.
Yes.
God bless the ER, but I hope nobody ever has to go there, right?
So we want to know who primary care doctors are.
I have a list of who your primary care doctors and a list of specialists.
I think that’s a great place to start.
Copy of insurance cards because as soon as you walk in the door,
that’s the first thing they’re going to ask you when you see the insurance card.
If there is a way for you to access the MyChart for your loved one,
or even for yourselves, all of you out there should be doing that for yourself.
If you call the doctor’s office, I know you just call them.
They’ll give you the code.
They’ll give you a little flyer of how to get into that and get signed up.
You can download an app.
It can go right on your phone.
You can put it on the laptop, whatever it is.
So that will save you a lot of time and energy because actually,
if you’re into MyChart, everything I’m going to tell you to do is already in there.
The list of the specialists, the list of the meds we’re on.
That’s where I would start as an advocate of, do I know?
Do I know what’s going on?
And really, just the basics.
Med list, the primary care, the specialist, maybe a couple diagnoses.
I think once you have those things, you have a lot more tools than a lot of people.
So that’s a huge thing.
If you’ve got those four things, really, you have a lot.
And you can give all that to the caregivers when the crisis happens.
And I think them are easy things for our folks that are a little more private
and don’t like to share because I don’t know.
For sure.
There are folks that don’t like to share things.
I’m like, that’s an easy, hey, let’s just get this stuff lined up.
I just need to know the basics.
I need to know everything that’s going on with you.
But I just need to know the basics so that if something happens, I at least know
your social security number and your date of birth.
Because it’s not just necessarily our family.
It could be neighbors that we’re caring for or whatever.
And so I need that information.
And then it easily rolls into, and if you can, then it easily rolls into
what things are they concerned about?
Because if we can always take the angle of what is top priority to them,
you’re there to help them and continue what are values and what’s important to them.
Because that way they know you’re on your side.
That’s right.
You’re not going to be a little too bossy or pushy because I might have that problem.
But they’re still in charge and driving the ship of their care.
Love it.
Well, hey, make your journey an empowered one.
Thank you, Jill.
Thank you, Kristin.
We’re just so happy to be here with you guys.
And we’re going to keep going with this podcast and we’ll have some more information
for you on the next one.
And pretty soon we’ll have a way for you to send in some questions for us and all that good stuff
so we can make sure that we’re getting you the information that you need.
Well, thank you so much for joining us today.
This is Kristin and Jill, and we will see you soon.
Bye-bye.