MedicalSpeakinEnglish

ask your doctor medical questions about your diagnosis on medical website image

1. Research your doctor or health care provider.

Ask family or friends what doctors they have seen in the past, because doctors tend to refer patients to other providers in their area.

You can go to the board of medicine in your particular state to see if a provider has ever had any complaints or actions against them.

2. Know why you are going to the office visit and write your medical questions down.

Many providers are constrained by time so they may not be able to address all of your health issues in one visit You need to prioritize your health questions and issues.

Ask the doctor or health care provider questions.

3. Bring an updated medication list, allergies, prior surgeries, and family history with you to your doctor's visit.

This will save your doctor or provider time by not having to write them down or type them into the computer at the time, and this may help guide the doctors questions to you.

4. Get a copy of lab tests, x-rays results, or any test that a specialist has ordered to bring with you.

Often times the labs or x-ray results that a doctor or provider ordered are not actually sent to him/her by the facility that performed the test

5. Write your symptoms, complaints, down so that you do not forget anything.

Try to remember what makes your medical condition or pain worse and what makes it better.

6. Know what medication refills you will need.

7. Sample Template to bring with you to an office visit.

Name

Past medical history (include any prior medical problems you have had)

High blood pressure (hypertension)

Hyperlipidemia

Smokes

Allergic rhinitis

Low back pain s/p spinal fusion

Sacroiliac joint dysfunction (SIJ)

L5-S1 bulging discto the right with mild spinal stenosis

Past surgical history - include any prior surgeries that you have had

Right knee arthroscopy - 2004 with Dr. Clough

Hysterectomy with bilateral oophorectomy (TAH/BSO) - Dr. Clough

Lipoma removal - Dr. Bagley

Coronary artery bypass surgery (CABG) x 2 - Dr. Manniquin

Family history - you will want to know if your parents, grandparents, or siblings had breast cancer, colon cancer, high blood pressure (HTN), high cholesterol (hyperlipidemia), prostate cancer, diabetes, ect. This is only for immediate family members and does not include adoptive parents.

Mom

Depression, breast cancer diagnosed at age 50, high blood pressure, hyperlipidemia

Dad

Colon cancer diagnosed at age 40, diabetes, high blood pressure, hyperlipidemia

Brother

alcohol abuse

Maternal grandmother

Breast cancer diagnosed at age 50, depression

Maternal grandfather

Coronary artery disease with heart attack, depression, diabetes, prostate cancer

Paternal grandmother

Breast cancer diagnosed at age 70, alcohol abuse, depression

Paternal grandfather

Colon cancer diagnosed at age 65, prostate cancer, alcohol abuse

Social history - are you married, do you work, do you have children, hobbies.

Married with 2 children. Frank age 3, Haley age 7

Works at Liberty Mutual

Smokes

Does not drink

Enjoys hockey, golf, rock climbing, and reading

ask the doctor health questions about diagnosis symptoms or medical tests on medical website image

1. Listen to the doctor or provider and take notes.

This will help you to remember their medical explanation after you have left.

2. Restate to the doctor or provider what they have said to you to ensure that is what the provider meant.

Many times the doctor may say or mean one thing but the patient takes it an entirely different way. This helps decrease any confusion later on, and improves communication between you and the doctor. The provider should also restate to you what he thinks you mean.

Ask the doctor questions or health care provider.

3. Ask for a copy of the office visit note or treatment plan to help you remember what was said during the visit.

However, you should realize that the office note for that day may not be done at the end of your visit.

4. Bring someone with you to serve as your advocate and to lend another ear.

5. Ask your doctor or provider for copies of handouts regarding your diagnosis or medical condition.

6. If a medication was prescribed, ask what the most common side affects are.

7. If you are being referred to a specialist and want to know who the best is, you cannot just ask the doctor who the best is.

If you ask the doctor this way they may not tell you. Instead ask the doctor who they would send their mother or father to.

8. If you are on medications and things are going well, ask your doctor or provider if you should decrease any of the dosages.

patients research doctors diagnosis and medical conditions on medical website image

1. Write down any health questions that came up after you left the office.

This will help you remember them and help you prioritize the next office visit.

Ask the doctor or health care provider questions the next visit.

2. Research your diagnosis, medical condition, lab results, ect to help prepare yourself for the next office visit.

This may help you generate health questions for the next visit.

3. If you were referred to a specialist, research that specialist with the board of medicine in your state.

Call ahead to the specialists office to see if they would like you to bring anything, like the actual x-ray or imaging study films.

4 If you were referred to a specialist and were unhappy with the visit get a second medical opinion. It never hurts to have two opinions.

I always tell my patients when going for a second medical opinion, never tell them you have already seen a doctor, because sometimes doctors do not like to go against what was already said to a patient.

5. If you are unhappy with your doctor or provider or you are unhappy with something that happened at an office visit call the office to find out if they have an ombudsman, a community relations person, that can help resolve the issue. Or speak to the doctor yourself.

If you continue to be unhappy with your doctor or provider, or do no feel that your medical problems are being addressed, or that you are not being listened to, change doctors or find a new practice. The strongest message that you are unhappy is leaving their practice. Do not worry about hurting someones feelings because it is your health at stake.

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