Healthcare or Optimal Healthcare? There's a Difference featuring Sandra L. Washington

In this episode of the Patient Advocacy Now podcast, we sit down with Sandra L. Washington, founder of the C.H.L.M.S. Medi-Helpz Foundation, an organization committed to patient advocacy and empowerment. Sandra L., with a background in public policy and healthcare administration, shares her journey and the impetus behind her advocacy work. Motivated by the tragic experiences of losing two sisters due to mismanagement of medical care, Sandra discusses the foundation's mission to provide support and resources for vulnerable communities that often lack access to proper healthcare. She delves into the challenges faced by patient advocates, emphasizing the importance of collaboration, education, and engagement to empower patients and improve overall healthcare outcomes.

Sandra also provides insights into the foundation's approach, combining a for-profit model under Medi-Helpz with a non-profit arm, C.H.L.M.S., to ensure that advocacy services are accessible to all, regardless of financial constraints. She reflects on the three essential components of patient advocacy: education, empowerment, and engagement, stressing the need for patients to be informed and active participants in their healthcare journey. Sandra L. shares her vision for expanding the impact of C.H.L.M.S. Medi-Helpz nationally and even globally, highlighting the significance of collaboration and community involvement in addressing healthcare disparities. 

Transcript:

Host

Sandra L. Washington, thank you so much for being on the Patient Advocacy Now podcast. How you doing today?

Sandra L Washington

doing well. I'm tired, but I'm well. And as we stated before we came on, there's a reason for me being tired, but I'm well and I'm up to doing what I always do, which is to speak up, speak out, speak often for patients that we at the Foundation serve.

Host

Yeah, I think, you know, as a, as a daughter, as a human, as a woman, and as a patient advocate, there's a lot of weight that you probably carry on your shoulders. And so being tired comes with, comes with the nature of the, of life.

Sandra L Washington

Yeah, you know what, you're so, you're exactly correct, you know, because of the populations that we service, right, it's always a passion-filled fight. So with that passion-filled fight, a lot of times, dude, you get tired because like you just said, life happens, right? And with all of that built into one person, sometimes it gets to the point where you're like, hold up, wait a minute.

And even when I don't say, hold up, wait a minute, I have support, I have the internal and external support network that says, girl go sit down somewhere, we got this. We got this and so they allow me to get some rest, but they know, okay, we can let her rest for a little while, but we already know she ain't gonna be sitting for long, so.

Host

That's great.

Host

That's really fun. It reminds me of like watching my mom in the kitchen where everybody's like, take a break. And she's like, no time, no time. So tell me about your journey, how you kind of came into the patient advocacy space, the company that you founded, the MediHelps and Choms. Give me the history so that we can kind of understand the impetus behind it and where it's come from and where it is now.

Sandra L Washington

Hahahaha

Sandra L Washington

Okay, so I will start off by saying this. As an African American woman who actually had my master's degree in public policy and administration and healthcare, and so as an African American woman and as someone that has studied public policy and healthcare, becoming an advocate was born into me. It was something that was instilled in me. I had two older sisters.

both lost their life, one lost their life due to actually seeing the wrong doctor. She should have been seeing another type of specialist because she had a heart condition, but she was seeing a geriatric doctor. And that doctor wasn't able to help her in the manner in which she should have been helped.

And instead of him telling her that, hey, look, let me give you a referral so you can go to another doctor that's specialized in this, he kept her under his care for far too long. So when she lost her life, she literally lost her life while I was fighting with the insurance company, the medical directors at the insurance company because they didn't understand why she needed to have this particular service because...

Everything on the internet was saying that, you know, there wasn't enough information because she had a really rare disease. So to see her go through that, I was like, okay, I gotta do something with this gift that God has given me to advocate for people. And then my other sister lost her life pretty much in the same manner. She had cancer. She went to the doctor. They told her, you know, it's menopause in the home.

And actually what she had was breast cancer that turned into ovarian cancer. So she had the two cancers that if she was, you know, it wasn't so much that she was seeing the wrong doctor, but what it was when she was seeing a doctor that pretty much gaslighted her and told her, oh, you know, what you're seeing, you know, you're, you're literally making it up. It ain't that bad. Go on home, take, you know. And so was that those two incidents that

Host

Wow.

Sandra L Washington

caused me to once again say, okay, God gave me this talent, I'm gonna use it. I'm gonna use it to fight on a higher scale for people that look just like me who don't know where the resources are, don't have the opportunity to learn where the resources are. It's just way too much stuff that happened to me in my life. And you know, no telling, I hear stories of my paternal grandmother because she was from the islands. My paternal grandmother was born in Suriname.

Host

Thank you.

Sandra L Washington

And I hear stories a lot of times of, you know, when she was growing up, when she came to America, when she was growing up, and some of the challenges that she probably faced at the time that she came over just made it instilled in me that this is something that I had to do. That was, you know, that's three stories. And then the fourth story is my maternal grandmother, she had cancer. Now

Until recently, and it's not even until recently, because it's been like this for quite some time. Cancer at one point in time was looked at just as bad as a sexually transmitted disease. Nobody knew what it was, nobody knew where it came from. Everybody knew, nobody talked about it because everybody that had it was literally scared, right? And so at...

As we sat, you know, as I think thought back on all this stuff, which is one reason why I actually had charms, but we'll go into that a little bit in a few minutes rather. But the four of those stories together, John, it just made me say, I got to do something. It made me say, you know, I went to school, I learned, I got my education. What can I do with my education other than to sit on it? There's too many people out here in the populations that we serve.

that need our help. And so that's where the idea for Choms came from. But Choms is the baby, up and under the bigger umbrella that sits under the bigger umbrella of Medi-Helps. So Medi-Helps from Medi-Helps, I've written a book. I have two books coming out in 2024 dealing with different healthcare issues. So the books, the public speaking, all of that, I do under Medi-Helps.

What I was finding as I was doing the work under MediHealth was that I was coming in and I was doing work and there were patients that I needed to service that I unfortunately had to tell them I couldn't service them because they couldn't pay me. And that bothered my heart so much so that I said, there's gotta be a way that I can do this where I don't have to turn anyone away.

Sandra L Washington

And so doing it that way, what occurred was I started the Choms MediHelps Foundation, which is the nonprofit arm of that, because that way I could do the public speaking, I could do the public speaking, I could do the help, you know, to go out into the neighborhoods and have these community conversations, let people know what resources are available to them. So that's how MediHelps got started, and that's what.

Chomps is as the baby umbrella, the nonprofit side of the Chomps.

Host

And chomps for people who are listening, it's an acronym. It's CHLMS.

Sandra L Washington

Right. And so the C for chomps comes, the name is Christomer. That was my maternal grandmother. Henrietta is the H. The M is for Mary, which is my mother-in-law who lost her life just recently. The L, my grandmother's both of them, one was Christomer Louise, the other one was Henrietta Louise, and I'm Sandra Louise. And then that S is for Sandra. So I use that

name and I use those names because I wanted to stand for something. Like my passion-driven work had to lead me and guide me and that's what I use that name for is as a guide to lead me. When I think that I'm doing something that you know won't be beneficial, I hear those voices and I look to them to actually guide me. When I do I'm doing something

And they're like, okay, yeah, this is what you keep doing and keep doing it. I hear those voices of encouragement and I get those voices.

Host

Great. What? Well, first of all, when was it established? How long have you been doing this?

Sandra L Washington

MediHelps, I've been doing for about 15, 20 years, right? I stopped it because my son at the time was still in school and I wanted to be, you know, like, I stopped it because I wanted to be a mother and I had to make a choice, either be a mother or be a business person.

Could I have done both? Yes, I could have, but I didn't think that I would be able to do it at the level that I wanted to do it. Like I was the mother, well, me and my husband both were the parents that when my son wanted to do something, when our son wanted to do something, we didn't just take and drop him off and say, hey, we'll be back. We stayed and we had him, you know, we enjoyed him knowing that at some point in time he will become 18 or 16 and he wanna live his own life. And then that-

Host

Sure.

Sandra L Washington

point in time, that's actually when I picked it back up, I went back to school and you know, I was doing a whole bunch of things that had stopped when he got to the age where I was actually now able to say, okay, let me go ahead and do what it is that I've always wanted to do. So yeah, it's been around chums, many helps the nonprofit side of us. We started in 2022. So we've been.

Host

And you know, go ahead.

Sandra L Washington

Yeah, we just made a year.

Host

For non-profit land, that's very successful already. Let me ask you because we've talked a lot about this issue in the advocacy space of being able to pay for the services and they're a large part of many different populations who just simply can't afford it. What is your vision of how we can solve that issue and how are you kind of structuring CHOMS, Medhi Helps?

Sandra L Washington

Hahaha

Sandra L Washington

Well, as far as the money, yeah. And I'm glad you asked me that question, because it's actually a really valid question to ask. So as you look at the advocates, you have to ask them, OK, well, are you doing this as a business model, or are you doing it as a nonprofit model? Because the business model and the nonprofit model are going to follow two different paths, right? Because when you're doing that as a business model, you're doing it with the number one. No, I'm not going to say number one.

Host

to try and address it.

Sandra L Washington

but you're doing it with the overarching that you wanna make money, right? So that's your bread and butter. That's where you, you know, how you get by in life, right? Is by doing your advocacy work. For the nonprofit people such as myself, well, first of all, what I did was I waited until I actually was pretty close to retirement age before I fully picked it up. And as I get closer and closer, I'm doing it more and more.

Host

Yeah.

Sandra L Washington

because I want to leave a legacy and not only that, what I also want to do with the Nonprofit Foundation is I want to actually be able to really give that. So I'm doing it from my passion point. It's not that the ones that are doing it for business aren't, but it's just a different track. So I'm doing it from my passion point. I'm doing it from the fact that there are so many people out here that want to help, right?

that if we don't say, here, here's how you can help me, then we won't get ahead, right? We can't shut them out and we can't say, well, that's too much, that's too hard work going after them and asking them for money and get philanthropies and grants, you know, that's way too much work. It is, I'm not gonna lie to you. I've spent the past year learning. I've made a number of mistakes, a number of issues that I wish that I...

didn't make, but I wouldn't have learned if I didn't make them, right? So as I grow, I'm learning. But in the nonprofit section of it, I'm doing it from a passion point. I'm not doing it from the money point. So I'm doing it and I'm looking and I'm saying, okay, well, there's all these people out here that want to help, right? Let me let them help. Let me give them an opportunity to help where they're helping and they're seeing that they're helping. So you got to show people, hey, you know, you gave me this to do this. Here's what I'm doing with it.

So you have to pretty much show them that. So when, you know, as I get closer, once again, as I get closer to retirement age and I'm ready to retire, I don't wanna be sitting back saying, hey, what do I do now? Do I go to Walmart and work part-time? Do I, you know what I'm saying? Do I travel? Cause I could travel as a nonprofit advocate. Do I travel? Do I help other people? What exactly do I get from this for doing this?

And my get from and doing it is the fact that I'm able to go out and reach more people, talk to more people in an open conversation without having to worry about, okay, how much are they going to pay me? The populations that we service are the vulnerable pair populations. So I already knew, you know, okay, well, there's really not going to be a lot of money in this. So you know, we went into it knowing.

Sandra L Washington

that we would actually have to fund some of this ourselves, especially as we were starting up, right? So for a nonprofit, you can't go into it and not put your own money into it. So, you know, we knew, and then when I say we, me and my husband knew we were gonna have to foot some of this, pay for some of this ourselves while we were getting established. But the work needed to be done. The work needs to be done for the vulnerable communities because they're suffering.

And they're suffering for a number of reasons. Well, once again, it comes from the gift that I have and being able to be that resource person, which has actually helped us tremendously.

Host

It's amazing. Do you see it being a possible model or solution at a larger scale, like on a national level or statewide even level?

Sandra L Washington

I do. I reach out constantly to, well, actually this past year, I'm actually moving it a little bit, but this past year, every Wednesday, we did what you call Educational Wednesdays. And what Educational Wednesdays were, there was a video series that we did with other nonprofits throughout the country who actually had little, you know, they were little known, right? Nobody really knew.

about them. Unfortunately for the brown and black community, what happens a lot of times is that we don't hear it, we don't think it impacts us. So to bring it home, I'm, you know, collaborated with those organizations that had these nonprofits, and we would do a video series every Wednesday, or at least we would try to do one every Wednesday, where we brought those up. So collaboration for us is key. I'm gonna tell you right now, John, I'm not one that...

looks to compete with anybody. There are way too many people out here that are sick, that need help, they need assistance, they need resources. So I don't have them all, but there's other nonprofits that do, or there's other advocates that do have those resources. So I use that as a springboard. Hey, let's get together and make this grow, right?

If it's not me growing and it's you growing, I'm fine. Because at the end of the day, what I want is a win-win solution for the patient. I don't want a win-win and then a year later, they write back where they started from because that's not helping anybody, right? These policies and procedures that are written to address the services that those in vulnerable communities have.

It only works for a little while. And that's because then the limelight falls off. And once the limelight falls off, and no one's there fighting for them, it's not gonna come back on. Until we get another pandemic, or another epidemic, or another something, then the limelight goes back on them. So as far as growing it regionally, statewide, citywide, the federal, I'm looking to do that, as far as even going into other countries, even though their systems are set up differently.

Sandra L Washington

they are still people there. Like humans are humans, right? No matter where you live at, right? Humans are humans. Diseases don't just stop in one community. Diseases keep going and they keep matriculating. They keep going. Well, everybody needs help. So can little old Sandra who has this little cottage nonprofit make it grow like that? No, but if I collaborate with other people who can, then at least being a little tiny part of that makes it all worthwhile.

Host

Yeah.

Host

What do you find is a bigger struggle in the more vulnerable communities that you service? Is it the education component? Is it the lack of resources? Is it a combination? Is there a stubbornness not to learn? Is there not enough educators? I'm fascinated to hear what is unique and different and what kind of challenges you see on a regular basis.

Sandra L Washington

Yeah, so and I'm glad and once again, excellent question. I am actually one of the actually three missions of Charms Many Helps is patient education, empowerment, and engagement, right? Patient education because we cannot sell like I can't go to someone that's maybe 50 right and tell them, hey you need to go to

of a, you know, what I'm going to give you a prime example. I'm going to start all over because I'm going to give you a prime example. I recently, our organization, our foundation recently had a patient centered conference. It was the first patient centered conference that was ever held. The reason why I was so into having this patient centered conference is because we go to conferences, at least I do. I go to conferences all the time. I sit on

Host

Yeah, let's do it.

Sandra L Washington

groups all the time. I'm in somebody's face and somebody's boardroom and somebody's something all the time trying to get this point across that, hey, vulnerable, under-resourced, underserved, you know, communities need these resources, right? And I'm like, what are we talking a language that we should be talking? Like, is there something that we're not getting that we should be getting where these vulnerable communities can learn from?

And when they learn, they'll be actually able to do so much better because they'll have a resource information, whether it's a phone number, an email, you know, newsletter, whatever, they'll have the information they need and which to grab. So let's, let me do this. We held this conference and our question was, what kind of doctor do you go to if you have asthma? Now, mind you,

I had just, one of our panelists, Ms. Karen Curtis from the Care Partner Project, had just spoken about an incident, patient safety incident, and she had just mentioned the specialist. So I asked the question, I said, what kind of doctor do you go to for asthma? And I didn't get an answer. And I was like, okay, so they don't know.

What kind of doctor? I'm looking for them. I wasn't looking for them to tell me the full word because I knew they wouldn't be able to tell me the full word of pulmonologist, but I thought that they would at least give me something with a IST. And they didn't say anything. So after the conference was over, I approached the young ladies and I asked them, I said, I was trying to give y'all a prize. Cause I had, people are giving us in kind donations and what I've...

Host

Mm-hmm.

Sandra L Washington

doing with the in-kind donations, but asking questions, whoever answered the question, that's who would get the prize, right? Right. They didn't know the answer to it. They all said, the lung doctor, this doctor, that doctor, but nobody said an IST, and that's the most important word, that's one of the most important words that patients need to know. They need to know what is a specialist and what kind of specialist they should be going to.

Host

Yeah, keep them engaged and motivated.

Sandra L Washington

So I approached them afterwards and I asked them, I said, I was trying to give y'all a prize and y'all didn't even ask my question. They was like, Sandra, we didn't answer your question because we didn't know the answer. Like when we go to our doctor, they just treat us. They don't tell us that there's other doctors that we can go to that will be better able to service us. They just treat us and send us on our way.

which reminded me of my sister when she was sick. She had a rare heart condition. She was going to a geriatric doctor. She should have been going to a cardiologist. And at some point in time during her early treatment, her geriatric doctor should have sent her to a cardiologist. Should have told her, hey, I can't, you know, I'm not trained to do this. Instead, he tried to treat her until no doctor would touch her because they already knew that what he did to her.

what's gonna cost her life, right? So it like, okay, well, we can't keep telling these patients to do things and they don't know. Like they're not educated on what resources, they're not educated on the fact that there are special doctors that handle special disease states. They don't know any of that. So what else keep telling them, trying to tell them to do right without teaching them and giving them the education that they need to do right?

What do we have? I mean, what do we have? Really, what do we have? So the education piece is extremely critical, especially with the vulnerable communities, that we give them the education that they need so they can go and they can get the help that they need. Then there's the engagement piece. Guess what happens when a patient is educated? They become engaged.

Host

Yeah.

Sandra L Washington

Now you giving them some information for them to run back to their doctors with. Because that's exactly what I was told. They would say, Sandra, now that we came here, we learned all this information, we now, when we go to the doctor, this is what we're going to say. And that's not the first time I've heard that. I hear that consistently when I teach, when I teach, educate a patient on something that they don't know about. They feel like, okay, I could do this now. I know what I'm doing when I go in there.

So that education piece leads to that engagement piece. That engagement piece leads to that empowerment piece because now you're educating them, you're engaging them and you're empowering them to use that all powerful tool of the tongue to actually go in and speak and ask for what they need. We throw these terms around and I tell people all the time when I go to meetings, I'm like, you know what? I really wish y'all stopped throwing these carrots in front of clients, in front of patients for faces.

Like they're like, well, what are you talking about? Patient centered care. What is that? It's supposed to be when the patients work with the doctors and the doctors and the patients come to an understanding of, OK, this is how we're going to progress with this patient's prognosis. A lot of times that doesn't happen. But in writing and the articles and stuff that you read online, you'll see.

that, oh, the patient centered care, oh, they got this patient centered care going on. It's not a new concept. It's never been followed, but empowering a patient to understand what patient centered care is and engaging them and educating them. They have a tool now where they can go in and say, hey, doc, I'm want patient centered care. I know what you're saying, this is what I'm saying. Now we need to work together to come up with something.

where I'm gonna be compliant in what you're telling me to do. Because you telling me to do this and I don't really feel like I should be doing it, I'm not gonna do it. And so you're gonna say I'm non-compliant or this patient is horrible or this patient is hard, which a lot of times gets placed in vulnerable patients. It gets placed in their notes when they go to the doctor. And those notes, as I tell patients all the time, those notes don't just stop.

Sandra L Washington

at that one doctor's office, those notes travel with you. So, you know, you need to know what's in your notes and they need to be more specific about why they're putting them in those notes. So, you know, it's a combination of the three. I call them the three E's. You gotta have the three E's. If you want a patient...

Host

education, empowerment, and engagement, right?

Sandra L Washington

Right, if you want a patient to be, you know, the best patient ever, and you want the best, our thing is, look, we want all patients to have access to optimal healthcare. We don't want just access to healthcare, because I can go down the street and see Dr. Smith, but if Dr. Smith is gonna give me some really messed up treatment, why I need to see him? What's the purpose of me seeing him? Wait, wait, so.

Yeah, so it's all three. They're all tied together, but they really all tie from the fact that we have too many patients out here that are not educated. Nobody's bothering to educate them. I center it on the fact that maybe about 10, 15 years ago, John, we went from healthcare to ACOs, Affordable Care Organization. When we moved to that model,

We move from medicine as medicine was to medicine as a business. What's the key thing for businesses? Growth. They need to get in and they need to make money. So they don't have time, even though the doctors want to, which is why I believe a lot of older doctors have just actually retired, because they're no longer able to treat, they're no longer able to practice medicine. Now they're practicing business models. And what's happening is that with them

practice in those business models, there's more patients, especially in the vulnerable communities that are going without the care that they need.

Host

Makes a lot of sense. Tell me about your two books that are coming out.

Sandra L Washington

I have one book that I wrote, it came out in 2022, 2021 it came out, it's called the Personal Health Planner and Journal. It's actually a journal that's an infinity journal, meaning it has no date. So it doesn't say 2022 or 2021, it's a journal for patients to keep their information on. So they don't have to write their information down on sticky pads or sticky notes, throw them in their bag, they get to the doctor, the doctor, you know.

They're not prepared. I wrote that book as a way of addressing what was going on when we were in the midst of the pandemic, because what I noticed was happening was that people were going to the doctor, right? And you were hearing a lot of times people were dying from COVID. It really wasn't COVID, it was underlying conditions, especially in our community, that didn't get addressed.

They didn't even know it was in their family. So the journal is a place for both a personal history and a family history. And whether you are, you know, whether you are still in your biological family or maybe you're adopted, your culture is your family. So the health history of your culture is just as important to you as the biological history of your.

So I wrote that so that there's a way to actually place both the personal and the family. So when you go to the doctor's office and you got that 100 page form that they give you that you have to fill out, pay it, you have to pay. You're not sitting there going, I don't know. And you have an infinity book where you can go to look at that information and actually see what is going on. The second book I wrote, I started this book a while ago.

but I have actually been sick. I didn't realize how sick I was until December of last year when I was diagnosed with both chronic kidney disease and liver failure. So I was diagnosed with both of them, but I was sick. And I just, because I didn't really know how sick I was until I couldn't go anymore. Like my arm button had this completely, like it was on E.

Sandra L Washington

Like if you don't take this right now, Sandra, we're just gonna shut down and you ain't gonna be able to move. And so I started the book a while ago. And what this book is, is about patient, how a patient advocate had to use her voice to actually fight through COVID, how, you know, the different terminology that patients need to know when they go to the doctor, how I, what I had to do. Like...

literally taking you through my personal journey to show you what I had to do to teach you the terms that I knew But that you probably don't know but you should know it's once again an educational resource for you to pick up and say hey Um, okay. This is what this term means. Okay. Now. I know what this term means. Let me go ask the doctor about this term so just basically an overall it's a It's a it's a um

For lack of a better word, it's a diary, but in that diary is words, terms, and concepts that all patients need to know. And I show them the importance of knowing those terms and concepts. I show the reader the importance of knowing them, and I show them which ones they need to know. I'm actually, so it's been in the making for a while. So I'm hoping that book comes out in 2022. So, and then I'm gonna actually expand the...

Host

2024.

Sandra L Washington

journal out because I now actually want to, I've met other advocates that have produced items that I want to actually include in the book because I do have a section in there for patients what they need to have. And there are other patient advocates that I've met since I started the original writing of the book that I would love to actually include those documents and those resources in the book.

so that the patient has the most inclusive list that they could possibly have. And there goes that collaboration with me, right? I wanna make sure that they had, even though I didn't produce it, I wanna make sure they know that it's out there and they know how to actually be able to get it.

Host

Sounds like you're doing amazing work. If there's people who want to connect with you through charms or through Medi-Helps, what's the best way for them to connect with you?

Sandra L Washington

I have a website. The website is www.medihelps. So Medihelpz is M-E-D-I-H-E-L-P-Z. It's not an S, it's a Z on the end. And there's a story behind that too. But I changed it to, I had to change it to a Z. So it's that, or they can actually outreach me through my email, which is Sandra at.

Choms Foundation. And so once again at Choms Foundation is chlmsfoundation.com. They can send me an email say, Hey Sandra, you know, love to speak with you. I'm also on LinkedIn, I do various audio events on LinkedIn. I've started doing more LinkedIn than I previous than the previous year I was doing everything through StreamYard and Facebook.

but I've since actually expanded it out to now include LinkedIn, audio events, Facebook. So those are the ways that they, if anybody's interested, those are the ways that they can actually outreach me. And even if they're not interested, if they know someone that falls into that category of being a vulnerable patient, and they're like, I can't help you because, you know, this is what I charge, but here, you could contact this person. She may be able to provide those resources for you.

that you need in order to get what you need to have to make sure you're getting your healthcare taken care of. Because at the end of the day, John is all about providing a winning solution for all of these patients that are out here suffering, that shouldn't be suffering, but they're suffering because they just don't know.

Host

Sandra L. Washington, thank you so much for doing such amazing work in the world and in those communities that desperately need it. I really appreciate you sharing your story and spreading the word.

Sandra L Washington

It was a pleasure, John, speaking to you and having this conversation with you. And if ever you need anything, just give me a call.