Getting the Best From Your Medical Visits

Nobody particularly likes having to attend medical appointments or go into hospital for an in-patient stay. Even with the most positive disposition, the process can be sapping - there can be a lot of waiting around for not very much at all, and even at the end you can be left with more questions than answers. Whether as a patient or as someone with responsibility for a patient, it’s something that takes a lot of inner strength. It’s important that you ensure every contact you have with medical professionals meets as many of your needs as possible, something which can be helped by ensuring the following.

Know the questions you need to ask

This is a scenario that is possibly best illustrated with a specific example. Any medical appointment is an information-gathering experience and knowing the right questions is important. Let’s say for example that you’ve been experiencing persistent light-headedness. You’ll want a doctor to be able to tell you what the most likely causes of this symptom are, in your case, and how you can get from “likely” to “certain”. Are tests needed, and are they advisable at this point? Is there something you can do in the meantime to mitigate symptoms and accelerate recovery? And when will you know more?

It’s always best to have more information earlier on - this means you can select the best treatment options at the point where they will make the greatest difference. And it’s best to get this information from a doctor; googling your symptoms can open a Pandora’s Box of alarmist speculation that’s awful for your mental health.

Don’t badger your doctors

There is a fine line between being an empowered patient (or patient’s representative) and being pushy, and that line isn’t just the doctor’s feelings. Of course we always want the best from our medical visits, but it is possible to push too hard for information and reassurance. Sometimes doctors won’t have the answers you need, now or for a few days or weeks. Contacting them for progress updates is fine; asking for information when they’ve made it clear they don’t have it is not.

Worse than that, undue pressure can have a negative effect as they seek to tread a line between keeping you informed and making the right decision in a nuanced situation. Asking them to speed things up may be asserting your rights, to you. To them, it could be the cause of mistakes that cost them their medical malpractice insurance. Doctors have a hard job; empathizing with that is far more likely to get you the results you want.

Provide clarity from your side

This is one of the most important statements any patient or representative can hear in regard to medical visits: if you have a diagnosis in mind and answer questions in a way which is designed to get that diagnosis, you’re harming yourself and the medical professionals alike. Omitting facts which feel inconvenient or irrelevant to you could mean that a differential diagnosis is reached on the basis of inaccurate information, and could be wrong. This could result in the wrong treatment being prescribed, and poorer outcomes reached.

Be honest, open and purely factual when answering any questions from a doctor. They’re asking them for a reason, and messing with the process is messing with the results. Let it run its course, as that’s the only way you’ll get the diagnosis you need.