When Sharon Gauthier heard that one of her elderly clients was about to be sent from a convalescent facility, where he was recovering from surgery, to the local emergency room due to blood pressure issues, she responded immediately.
“Because he hadn’t been formally entered into the registration system at the facility yet, the on-call physician couldn’t intervene,” she explains. “When I got there, we realized he had taken his blood pressure medications at the wrong time. We made the adjustment, and he didn’t need to go anywhere. If I hadn’t been there, he would have been sent to the ER unnecessarily, with a post-surgical wound.”
These are the situations Gauthier manages as the founder of Patient Advocate for You, a Hartford-based company she began two and a half years ago. A registered nurse with a background in emergency medicine, case management, and other specialties, Gauthier says she thrives working outside of the healthcare system, where she can focus entirely on her clients’ needs.
“Within the system, there are so many agendas to abide by,” she says. “It can make it difficult to strictly advocate. Now I work directly for patients and families.”
Gauthier charges an hourly fee for her services, which focus on helping patients transition from one phase of care to another, such as moving from a hospital or rehabilitation facility to a return home. Once a client is settled, she offers a flat fee maintenance plan to keep tabs on any medication regiments or to assist with follow up appointments. Her goal is to educate patients and their families, so that these transitions go smoothly.
“When a patient is discharged, they are handed a sheet of instructions, but they aren’t often asked important questions,” she says. “Like, Do you understand your meds plan? Can you afford these meds? We cover all of this, so the patient isn’t just nodding blankly at a piece of paper.”
Family members often seek out Gauthier’s services to gain peace of mind knowing that their loved one’s healthcare needs are being closely monitored by a compassionate professional. Patient Advocate for You operates 24-hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week, and is listed as the Lifeline and emergency contact for each of their patients.
“Families feel better knowing we are there,” she says. “They know they won’t get the 2 a.m. emergency phone call from across the country, because we will get it.”
With a current case load of 22 patients — 10 active and 12 maintenance — Gauthier has a skilled staff ready to manage the steadily increasing demand. Patient Advocate for You employs four nurses, two of whom are part time and can add hours as needed. In addition, Gauthier is also developing the Everybody Needs an Advocate foundation, a nonprofit arm of the company established just this year. Future plans are also in the works to grow beyond post-acute patient transitions.
“I am networking with physician groups to promote the idea of case managing within medical practices to reduce readmission rates, which are driven back to primary care physicians,” she says. “I’m also looking to expand to memory care units to help coordinate care for dementia patients, who often need help to avoid mis-medicating or missing rehab appointments.”
To help steer her company, Gauthier has an advisory board in place which represents several facets of the healthcare industry, including clinical social work, pharmaceuticals, hospice care, elder care, healthcare law and others. She says the knowledge she gains from her board helps her address the overall goal of advocating exclusively for patients.
“I am wrapped in people who understand that it’s a systems issue,” she says. “With their input, I can work quickly to make sure my patients are treated within the community so they can avoid being hospitalized unnecessarily.”
Whether caring for her patients, promoting her business, or standing her ground in a room full of colleagues, Gauthier’s passion for patient advocacy is unmistakable to anyone who sees her in action.
“When I was in the system, I was always getting in trouble for speaking out,” she says. “Now I have people pull me aside and tell me I’m doing exactly what I should be doing.”
