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Volunteer-Based Advocacy Program Expanding

A volunteer-based medical program in Indiana aimed at assisting incapacitated patients with no family or friends could serve as a national model, according to a recent study from the Regenstrief Institute.

The volunteer advocacy program assigns volunteers to each patient in the hospital who doesn't have a friend or family member to take care of them.

The volunteer is tasked with looking out for the patient's needs and reports to the program's director, who has a legal background.

Indiana law permits attorney-supervised volunteers to serve as legal guardians for the incapacitated, but other states might require legislative changes before the program could be allowed.

Most states already have guardianship services in place to assist those without advocates, but Dr. Alexia Torke at the Indiana University School of Medicine says they're often overwhelmed, and that can make it challenging to advocate for everyone.

"It's been hypothesized that in such cases, patients are at risk for being over-treated on the one hand because nobody is willing to say, ‘Stop! That treatment's not really in the patient's best interest,'" Torke says. "Or they might be under-treated because we might be sitting around waiting for someone who can give informed consent, and so we might delay treatments when they're really important."

The program's most significant cost is personnel, but Torke says there are financial incentives for health care facilities.

In addition to looking after patients, volunteers completed Medicaid applications that resulted in almost $300,000 in reimbursement for the hospital.

Torke says she thinks the advocate-patient relationship is valuable.

"Not only did the volunteer provide a decision maker who was thinking about the individual's medical need, but it often provided the only person who really cared for that individual as a person," Torke says.

The program initially ran from 2010 to 2012 and is now expanding to other health care systems in the state, including the Center for At-Risk Elders.

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