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Patient advocacy on behalf of patients already frustrated or poorly supported by the medical system provides constant opportunities for examining personal and professional ethics. Personal biases and conflicts of interest, if not scrupulously mitigated, can lead to professional ethical breaches that affect the advocacy relationship, the individual practice of patient advocacy, and the reputation of the nascent field of patient advocacy.
There are obvious conflicts of interest that are well-documented in patient advocacy, like prescribing or selling products or services from which the advocate may earn a commission or directing clients to certain providers or facilities that an advocate directly represents for financial gain. There are less obvious conflicts that arise in day-to-day practice from, for instance, blurring lines between professional practice and familiarity with a client and family.
The good news is that humans are capable of constant learning and growing, and we can learn to observe and manage bias and conflicts of interest by applying an ethics lens to the practice of patient advocacy.
Learning objectives:
- How to identify obvious ethical breaches, subtle biases and conflicts of interest.
- Tools for self-awareness of bias and conflict of interest.
- Suggestions to mitigate what will inevitably arise in practice.
Speaker Bio:
Deborah Batson BCPA, Founder of Patient Advocacy Partners
Deborah has spent many years observing the health care system inside and out, as patient, family member, caregiver as well as in roles in the administration of health care in a hospital setting: clinical data, ethics and research protocol review.
For years before becoming board-certified, Deborah informally helped people navigate their health care, researching conditions and connecting people with providers who can help. She read, researched, and interpreted countless studies and drug reports, and negotiated many medical bills. Deborah has worked with both adults and children to support them during health crises.
In addition to Patient Advocacy Partners, Deborah sits on the pediatric panel of an Institutional Review Board, where she reviews research study proposals involving children as subjects. She serves on a hospital clinical ethics committee, helping to frame difficult questions for patients and clinicians and chairs the ethics committee of an advocacy certification board. Additionally, Deborah performs background research for a local health care activism group that considers housing and other economic disparities in health care.
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