Ruthann Russo, PhD, JD, MPH,
RHIT, is a healthcare expert
with more
than 20 years of experience
working in and advising
healthcare organizations. She
designed the HealthMap™ program
to help healthcare consumers
create plans for their own
health that reflect their
personal values, vision and
mission. She works with
physicians to help improve their
documentation in patient medical
records and to improve the
quality of healthcare. She has
personally instructed more than
3,000 physicians in hospitals
across the country, including
hospitals affiliated with the
University of Maryland,
University of Pennsylvania,
Johns Hopkins University, and
University of Massachusetts. She
is the author of five books on
the topics of health
information, documenting in
patient records, using medical
record information, and ensuring
medical bills are correct. She
is a graduate of Dickinson
College, American University’s
Washington College of Law,
Robert Wood Johnson Medical
School’s program in public
health, and Touro University,
where she earned her doctoral
degree in business
administration. She is a Partner
with the Bethlehem-based law
firm Russo and Russo and a
Managing Director with Navigant
Consulting. Ruthann and her
husband, Joe, an attorney in
Pennsylvania and New York, have
been married for 25 years. They
have two children, Emmalea and
John. They live in Center
Valley, Pennsylvania and New
York City.
http://www.djiberstore.com
PageOneLit.com:
Where
did you grow up? Were reading and writing a
part of your life?
Ruthann Russo:
I grew up in
rural western New Jersey in a small town
called Phillipsburg, where my family resided
for 3 generations. I have always had a
passion for reading. Since I was about 12, I
have probably read a book a week. I was
particularly influenced by Jane Austen and
her development of strong, unique quirky
female characters. I also loved classics
such as Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mocking
Bird and Shakespeare’s The Merchant
of Venice. The deep development of
characters combined with the use of irony,
often reflective of reality, has always
influenced my work.
PageOneLit.com: Why
did you write the 7 Steps to Your Best
Possible Healthcare?
Ruthann Russo:
I wrote the
7 Steps to Your Best Possible Healthcare
out of inspiration and determination. I was
inspired by my daughter Emmalea’s courage in
the face of her diagnosis with epilepsy. I
was determined, after successfully dealing
with the many, many healthcare challenges
around Emmalea’s epilepsy, to use my 20
years of experience in healthcare to provide
a resource that everyone can use to better
understand the healthcare system and manage
her own healthcare. I also wanted to make
the book a positive, enjoyable read, so
after identifying the 7 Steps and
their component parts, I wove some of
Emmalea’s stories, along with the stories of
other healthcare consumers, throughout the
book. Most chapters begin with a true story
of a healthcare consumer who, after some
initial challenges, successfully addressed
the topic of that chapter.
Another reason I wrote the book was to
remove the stigma that exists around
epilepsy. Many people are unaware,
confused, or even scared when they meet
someone with epilepsy. I felt that writing
openly, honestly and not too dramatically
about Emmalea’s epilepsy would help to bring
the disorder into mainstream consciousness.
PageOneLit.com:
In your opinion, over the past decade, how
has healthcare changed for the better?
Changed for the worse?
Ruthann Russo:
Over the past
decade, healthcare has made magnificent
strides in technologies to treat and cure
diseases. Research in chronic diseases such
as HIV and certain cancers has been
phenomenal. A decade ago, the majority of
HIV patients were hospitalized and had a
high likelihood of mortality. Today, most
HIV patients can be treated as outpatients
and the mortality rate has decreased
significantly. The use of less invasive and
more precise means for surgery, through
laser, computer and robotic technology has
made surgeries more bearable for patients.
However, while the healthcare industry in
general has been successful in producing
cutting-edge technology and groundbreaking
discoveries, we are ignoring “the basics”.
We fall short on making high quality
healthcare available for everyone. The
importance of nutrition in healthcare and
educating the healthcare consumer about the
healthcare system are key areas that need
improvement. The complexity of the system
and the need for the third party insurer’s
approval of most care, combined with the
fact that most Americans lack good
nutritional sense result in a lopsided
system that favors the healthcare provider
over the healthcare consumer. Good, sound
nutritional counseling and basic things such
as education and training about the system
would have a positive impact. We need to
focus on prevention and staying healthy
instead of medicating or operating on
someone once they have developed a
condition. Public policy and the economy of
our nation do not currently support this
perspective. We need to align policy and
the economy with this goal, so America can
become a healthier nation overall.
PageOneLit.com: What
is a 'Medical Mentor'?
Ruthann Russo:
A “medical
mentor” is a “trusted advisor” to a patient.
Patients commonly find they need a “medical
mentor” in one of two situations: when they
have been diagnosed with a serious acute
condition, such as cancer, or when they are
managing a long-term illness as multiple
sclerosis. I found in my research that most
patients in these categories have someone
they rely on as a “medical mentor”, although
they may not use this specific term. This
person is more than the source of emotional
support – most patients find emotional
support in family and close friends. The
“medical mentor” is someone who can help
navigate the system, process the mass of
information that is often delivered during
visits with physicians, and help the patient
make good decisions. The “medical mentor”
does not have to be a clinical professional.
Rather, the qualities of most successful
“medical mentors” include having good
communication and organizational skills.
Other attributes include the ability to
record and distill complex information, and
be someone that the patient implicitly
trusts. While still a new term, “medical
mentor” has been used by Bernadine Healy in
her columns in US News & World Report
and by Vanderbilt Medical Center’s Cancer
Center and many transplant programs.
PageOneLit.com: In
the 7 Steps to Your Best Possible
Healthcare you say, "The physician
office record is quite different from a
hospital record." Please explain this.
Ruthann Russo:
The primary
differences between medical records kept in
the physician office and those created in
the hospital are size and authorship. The
physician’s office record is generally
authored only by the doctor who is treating
the patient. The amount of information
recorded during the typical physician office
visit is usually less than one page. On the
other hand, the hospital record is authored
by all of the clinicians who see or treat
the patient. Even for a short hospital stay
(one day or less), the average number of
clinicians who see or treat the patient is
seven. As a result of many authors and
multiple tests that are routinely performed
on every hospital patient, the size of the
hospital record is much larger than the
record for a physician office visit. A one
day stay in the hospital can result in a 50
page record.
PageOneLit.com: What
do you hope to achieve with the 7 Steps
to Your Best Possible Healthcare? What
do you hope readers will take with them
after reading the 7 Steps?
Ruthann Russo:
I hope to
reach as many Americans as possible with the
information, stories and resources in the
7 Steps book. Consumers can already
access a significant amount of free
information from the website, podcasts, and
web-based videos that we have made
available. However, in addition to selling
the book, I am hoping to reach healthcare
consumers through employer or
community-sponsored training sessions. I
have already worked with a few chambers of
commerce organizations, associations and
hospitals to provide this service.
The most
important thing readers can take with them
after reading the 7 Steps is the
confidence that they can manage the
healthcare system and that it is the
“customer” who has the right to demand and
expect high quality service. This
confidence, also known as self-efficacy,
will trigger the continuing ability to
address various healthcare challenges
successfully. This is a concept I was able
to prove with a high degree of statistical
significance through my doctoral
dissertation study performed at the Hospital
of the University of Pennsylvania. The study
subjects were medicine residents, but the
concept of training using certain
constructs, is the same as I have built into
my book. For example, my use of actual
patient stories helps readers to learn
vicariously. There are also several
opportunities in the book for readers to
complete their own healthcare plans, values
or wants. I use written “pats on the back”
to encourage readers that they can become
successful users of the healthcare system.
These are all components of self-efficacy
and, if the reader follows these
suggestions, he will most likely become a
more confident and effective healthcare
consumer.
PageOneLit.com: What
did you learn from writing the 7 Steps to
Your Best Possible Healthcare?
Ruthann Russo:
I learned that
there are many healthcare consumers who want
to share positive outcomes they have had
with their own healthcare experiences. When
we decided to conduct a web-based survey
that asked people to describe their positive
healthcare experiences, we received 2,000
responses in less than 24 hours! The
compelling need that we all have to share
our positive stories became acutely
apparent. Unfortunately, we usually hear the
negative stories. It is important for
individuals to share their positive
experiences so that others can benefit.
I also learned, through focus groups that we
conducted for the book, that a person’s
intelligence and/or education do not
necessarily correlate with confidence and
knowledge of the healthcare system. For
example, I spoke with many intelligent,
highly educated individuals who had no idea
how to find a new primary care physician.
And, in some cases, these very intelligent
individuals had been with the same primary
care physician for a decade, did not
particularly like the physician, but had not
really thought about other alternatives.
PageOneLit.com: What's
next?
Ruthann Russo:
Medical Mentor
Training! We have a Medical Mentor program
in development for a healthcare training
certification that is based on information
in the book. And, of course, there is a
need for more community-based training. We
have also begun to create a DVD that
includes interviews with many of the actual
patients in the 7 Steps. And, based
on the feedback and the needs we identify
from these activities, we will continue to
develop additional resources to increase the
confidence of the American healthcare
consumer.
PageOneLit.com: What
was the last book you read?
Ruthann Russo:
I just
finished reading Conscious Eating by
Gabriel Cousens MD. Dr. Cousens was a
mainstream physician who now practices in a
more holistic manner with heavy emphasis on
the importance of a nutritionally-sound diet
for mental, physical and emotional health.
In his 800-page book, Dr.Cousens has
recorded his philosophy and methods for us
to follow. He recently wrote There is a
Cure for Diabetes: The Tree of Life 21-Day +
Program, to be published in January
2008, and I am looking forward to reading
it!
PageOneLit.com: Do
you have any hobbies? What are they? How do
they enhance your writing?
Ruthann Russo:
I love to run,
and I have run in two New York City
marathons and in about a dozen
half-marathons. Long distance running is a
great “brain cleaning” experience, and I
have gotten some of my best ideas during
these times. I also lead a raw food
life-style. Raw food nutrition, for which I
provide an appendix in my book, requires
re-learning food selection, food
preparation, and eating habits. In many
ways it’s about going “back to basics”
“Going back to basics” over the past two
years has helped me shape the basic premise
of the 7 Steps book.
