Patient Champion

[SW0110]

I was kind of hoping for a cute little petite blond woman to guide me through this.

[Piddlin]

Just a question then, How does one get assigned a patient advocate.

As "piddlin" stated, "He had one assigned to him"; possibly through his doctor, the hospital, insurance or the manufacturer themselves; I dunno.

Hopefully he will elaborate upon that.

From my experience you must luck into one somehow, because it doesn't appear to be an industry wide, standardized procedure. "Decide upon an implant, automatically, gain an advocate."

Most on here didn't seem to have one. I know I didnt.

In my case the advocate was assigned to me in pre-op by the hospital. Going in, I did no know that there would be one. It was a surprise to my wife and I. My wife really appreciated it because of non-implant related complications in surgery that extended the length of the surgery. The advocate kept her up to date on everything.

I think the exact role of an advocate or champion is probably determined by the hospital's, doctor's or other policies.