The Secret of Great Health Care
The effectiveness of any health care encounter is only as good as the interaction between the people involved. Each individual’s health is a shared responsibility between the health care provider and the individual, but the only person in the health care interaction you can control is yourself. Communicating your health care concerns is a challenging venture that needs to be mastered and is missing in the average health care encounter. Learning how to effectively communicate within the health care system can significantly enhance the quality of your health care.
Communicating with your doctor is an essential step in assuring good health. Good communication assists you in becoming an active member of your health care team and is one the most important things you can do to prevent medical errors or oversights.
Doctors can make the diagnosis a majority of the time with a good description of the current problem without fancy medical tests. Because of this, most doctors say that taking a medical history is one of the most important parts of their job. Your ability to communicate with your doctor vastly improves your health care. Consumers and doctors often rely on fancy, expensive, and sometimes risky or painful medical tests in making diagnoses instead of going back to the basics of a good history and physical exam.
Delayed diagnoses are often the result of the patient not providing a good history. Prompt attention to any medical concerns is an important consideration in getting an accurate and timely diagnosis. Often times the diagnosis is missed because the patient does a poor job at describing the symptoms or not asking the right questions.
Organizing health information is the most important aspect of communicating with health care providers. Creating a personal health care record is all about communication.
The Patients Role
It is critical for patients to provide an accurate history and course of the present illness. Communicating your medical history and current medical problem is a key component to getting good health care.
The health care system is changing and it requires each patient to take individual responsibility for his or her health care. Health care involves shared responsibility for health care decisions. Each health care consumer must comply with the mutually agreed upon plan of care. Without following the health care provider’s instructions, health care is ineffective.
Each doctor is required to see a high volume of patients and consequently does not have voluminous time to spend with each patient. The average time for each doctor’s appointment is 10-15 minutes, but many doctors spend less than that. It is important that each individual is prepared for each encounter with the health care system and communicates in a concise way.
Components of Good Communication: Preparation and Organization
Proper communication requires preparation and organization. You would not go into a major speech with outlining what you were going to say; therefore, you should not go into a situation where your life is on the line, like a doctors appointment, without knowing what you are going to say. Being prepared for each health care encounter vastly improves your health care.
Not only will being prepared and organized allow the communication of proper information during a health care encounter, but also your doctor will appreciate the organization. The physician’s job is made significantly easier if you are organized and the doctor will be able to do a better job. While certain places of health care, such as emergency rooms, are more difficult to prepare for, some basic principals apply to each health care encounter.
Good medical care is a partnership between patient and health care provider. When seeking advice from a doctor, try to present a detailed and well-organized account of present symptoms and relevant past history. Each health care encounter that you enter needs to be organized.
Three components are essential to preparing for a doctor’s visit: the personal health record, the visit form and the question form. The personal health record (which is discussed at length in chapter 1) is a concise way to prepare and report your past medical history.
The visit form is a specific form for the individual appointment to relay important medical data. These visit forms are provided in the Appendix and are explained in detail in chapter 2 and 3.
The question form is a place you can record questions you have for your health care provider. This book offers suggested questions to ask your health care provider under specific situations through out the book.
Preparing your personal health record is a cornerstone to getting good medical care. The personal health record is a detailed account of your health care history. Preparing and organizing this information enhances your doctor’s ability to care for you.
Preparing for a doctors appointment, with the use of the appropriate visit form in the Appendix, assures your agenda is covered. Patients see the doctor under three broad circumstances: an acute illness, follow-up and a routine maintenance exam. Learning how to organize health care information for each of these appointments improves your health care.
Doctors have limited time set aside for each appointment and that time needs to be maximized. Many individuals ramble on about multiple insignificant points, putting them at significant risk for receiving poor health care. The time in the doctor’s appointment needs to be maximized to its full potential. Being organized prior to the appointment helps assure you take advantage of the great health care that is available.
Making a diagnosis is difficult. Contrary to what most people think, medicine is not an exact science. There are multiple ways of handing one medical problem - it is possible for one patient to present to five different doctors with the same complaint and get five different answers. The physician needs detailed, well thought out and accurate information to properly diagnose and treat each individual.
Many patients present with one or two symptoms and it is up to the doctor to determine what the diagnosis is and how to treat the condition. Doctors need accurate descriptions of these symptoms because diagnosis and treatment is based on the history.
It is therefore essential that each patient provide as much information as possible to make the diagnosis as easy as possible for the physician. It is the responsibility of each individual to provide this information. Being prepared and organized for a doctor’s appointment is one of the most important things that you can do to assure you get this information to your doctor.
When talking about symptoms, be clear, objective, truthful and persistent. Many health concerns are sensitive and embarrassing, but without all the details, the doctor will not be able to care for you properly. The only way to get proper health care is to share all of your health care concerns. Do not let embarrassment be a barrier to communication with your doctor. If you do not want something to appear in the medical record, let the doctor know.
Be prepared to get all the necessary answers during your appointment. The visit forms listed in the Appendix will guide you to get all of the necessary information from your doctor.
Get instructions in writing from your doctor or use a tape recorder. If possible bring a friend to write down the doctor's instructions for you. Understand your diagnosis and treatment so that you can participate in regaining your health. Patients need to be allies in their health care and to be given a clear account of the doctor’s diagnosis and treatment. Understand what follow up is needed for the condition that you are seeing the doctor for. The visit forms will aid you in understanding how to follow up with your doctor.
The third component is preparing a list of questions prior to the appointment. List your most important concerns first as it is possible that you will not get to ask all of your questions. Make two copies of your question list – so you can give one to your doctor.
You do not have to accept a particular diagnosis or treatment. If you do not agree with a specific treatment feel free to ask the doctor for another solution or a consultation with another doctor. There is usually more than one way to handle any specific disease, and you have a right to know all of the alternatives. Challenging everything the doctor says will be viewed negatively by the doctor, this does not mean you cannot ask questions. Phrase questions constructively and with the purpose of enhancing your understanding of the condition or treatment.
