Engage With Empathy

By Barbara Ficarra, RN, BSN, MPA Original post, “Engage with Empathy” published on The Huffington Post on 6/27/12 in the Healthy Living/Health News Section. Do you feel connected with your doctor or other health care providers? Do you partner with your providers? How important is patient engagement to you? What words do you use to define patient engagement? Do you consider yourself an empowered patient or health care consumer? What is patient engagement? Here is…

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5 Buckets to Patient Engagement and the Role of HIT

By Barbara Ficarra, RN, BSN, MPA What is patient engagement? Patient engagement is a connection between patient, caregiver and health care provider.  A trusted relationship forms and mutual respect is fostered.  Patients and their families are empowered and they are active in health care decisions.  However, patient engagement begins before the initial interaction with health care providers. When patients and consumers recognize the need to be in charge of their health, patient engagement evolves.  Patients…

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Power of Social Media: Sharecare, Twitter and You

By Barbara Ficarra, RN, BSN, MPA One word to describe social media is engagement.  Social media allows relationships to develop and it fosters connection among the community.  A two-way conversation emerges and collaboration surfaces. Twitter, one platform in the social media arena, allows real-time communication to occur in 140 characters or less. Sharecare’s recent Twitter chat engaged the community with information to help them learn about the importance of sleep.  Sharecare’s sleep experts gathered online…

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Social Media: Are you engaged or do you ignore it?

By Barbara Ficarra, RN, BSN, MPA Can health care providers afford to ignore social media? Social Media Networking isn’t going to go away… …and trying to ignore won’t work… Social media is a powerful and phenomenal platform to disseminate valuable and trusted health information.  Are you engaged in social media networking or are you ignoring it? Social media allows health care silos the opportunity to engage with each other.  Health care conversations between the silos…

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How to Repair and Sustain Relationships

Guest Post by Walter E. Jacobson, M.D. Practice forgiveness, acceptance, compassion, consideration, graciousness and generosity. Turn the other cheek. Treat others as you wish to be treated. Try to avoid getting defensive and angry. Give the benefit of the doubt. Don’t assume the worst. Don’t assume your partner did what they did to intentionally hurt you. There is always the possibility that it was a thoughtless comment, that they did not mean what they said…

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