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"10 Ways To
Get The Most Benefit Out Of Your 'Quickie' Office Visit With Your Doctor---And Leave
Satisfied"
ATTN: Patients
who believe they deserve better!
Surveys on
medical office practices reveal that the
average office visit with the doctor is 8
minutes. Every medical patient would
like to know how to make that visit count and
get better health care out of the deal.
The old ways don’t work!
The
business of medicine requires positive
efforts by patients to take responsibility
for how beneficial their own health care
becomes. How do patients do that?-----By
learning techniques and strategies for using
every second of those 8 minutes wisely.
After all this time—someone is finally going
to tell you!
Take a look at
the problems if you
don’t do something:
-
Frustration with
incomplete attention to your medical
needs every time?
-
Forced into
extra office
visits to get all the medical issues
resolved, when it could have all been
handled on the first visit?
-
Required to fork over
a new co-pay fee
each time—costing you more “out of
pocket” in the long run?
-
Knowing that if the
doctor doesn’t have time to manage all of
your medical problems on that visit—will
that delay harm
you?
-
Knowing that if you
aren’t allowed time enough to tell the
doctor about your serious medical
problems—will it
harm you?
-
Concern that with the
short time allowed and speed of the
visit—some important
problem might be
missed?
-
Understanding that the
quality of your
care is compromised to some degree
because of inadequate time with the
doctor?
If you aren’t afraid of these
factors---you should be! 10 easy ways to improve your
health care and avoid
being shortchanged:
1.
Arrive early for appointments: The
patient ahead of you may have
cancelled and now you have
much more time available with the doctor
who
is under less pressure to run out the door to
see the next patient.
Offices using “wave” scheduling (everyone given the same
appointment time)
is on a "first there, first served" basis.
-
Make appointments for
mid-morning or mid-afternoon: Doctors
are always in a hurry at the beginning of
appointment schedules to catch up, and at
the end of the schedule to get to noon or
evening meetings.
-
Make appointments
mid-week: Mondays and Fridays are
always crowded with fit-in and urgent
appointments that weren’t scheduled—and
guess who has to wait for those to be
seen? And also guess who gets a shorter
time than usual with the doctor? Avoid
appointments just before and after
holidays.
-
Make a list: List
every issue or symptom you need to tell
the doctor. Have that list in your hand
in the exam room. List the brand name
of every medication you take, the
doses, and the schedules you
take them on—and have that in your
hand also.
-
Dressing: Always
be sure to do your dressing and
undressing when the doctor is not
in the room. Having to disrobe further
to examine a “just remembered” symptom
when the doctor is there uses up time
needlessly.
-
No children: Make
every effort to find a babysitter or
chaperone to watch the kids. Any child
in the exam room is distracting to the
patient and the doctor. Distractions
mean less time getting your medical
problems attended to.
-
Timing for questions:
The best time to get medical problems
discussed, and to have the doctor advise
you is after the exam is done,
late in the visit. If you get into those
at the beginning, the doctor will likely
have to revise and repeat prior comments
after the exam.
-
Chummy talk:
You can’t have both—a
friendly chat with the doctor about your
vacation, and have enough time in those 8
minutes to manage your medical problems.
-
Medication
information: This is usually the
first issue in the exam room. Hopefully
the nurse will scan and repair your list
before you see the doctor. Having your
medication list in your hand speeds up
the process with the nurse, and
avoids having the doctor spend time
scanning your medical record for that
information--not that they ever do that
anyway.
-
Bonuses:
Yes, they do exist!
There are 3 that stand out and are of
great benefit—but you have to make
it happen.
a. Handouts: Ask for any and all
written information about your
concerns—saves surfing the Internet for
answers.
b. Extracurricular Advice:
Office staff
will often answer questions and give
advice quietly and privately to you.
ASK!
c. Samples: Free medication samples
are often available in the drug closet.
Ask for samples, as no one will
volunteer to give any to you. They
simply don’t remember what’s in the
closet. You have to redirect the
staffer's attention with an "in your
face" approach with sweet little words.
Summary:
Each one of these strategies will save
you precious time, and allow you much more
time to interact with the doctor. The
white blur
that whipped past you in the exam room
probably was the doctor. Your eyes are not
failing. Use the advice above to bring the
doctor into focus—or at least into a
slow-motion pattern.
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The author, Curt Graham,
is a retired medical doctor who
has written extensively over his
35 plus years in active medical
practice. He is a published
author in Modern Physician,
and is credited as an expert
author by web article directories
and many self help websites
including selfgrowth.com.
Want to learn the strategies and
tactics anyone
can use to get top medical care?
Go there now!
http://www.HealthCare-Toolbox.com
Please feel free to copy, send,
or distribute this article as
long as the article is not
changed, and the resource box is
included as written.
© 2006 L & C Internet
Enterprises, Inc. All Rights
Reserved |
Word
Count = 877
Keywords
= doctor office, better healthcare,
medical problems, medication information,
medical record.
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