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Getting More from Your Doctor Visit

Ask yourself whether you felt better or worse after that last office visit, satisfied or frustrated, more reassured, or helpless and scared. The most frequent complaint about doctors is that they don’t spend enough time, yet patient satisfaction is not correlated with the length of an office visit. A doctor visit is a person to person interaction, like any other. This article is a prescription for a successful encounter with your physician.

Your doctor sees a visit as an exchange of information. The ideal doctor’s visit is when he or she gets a relevant history without subterfuge or distractions, confirms suspicions on physical exam, or medical tests, draws valid conclusions, then makes a brilliant intervention which treats a problem. The office is a fine tuned machine. Input: data (history, examination, tests), Output: treatment. Nirvana is a treatment plan that works. You may not see things exactly that way.

Whatever your goals, there’s a simple formula for getting what you want and need. The most important thing by far is to find a doctor you can trust and nurture a long term relationship. Be honest and direct with yourself and with your physician. Honesty alone removes barriers to care and speeds assessment. It’s better to see fewer doctors. Those persons constantly moving from place to place trying to find a pot of gold are fooling themselves and are often quite unhappy. There is no substitute for visiting a doctor who knows you, particularly in the setting of a long-term illness. Your personal physician has a tremendous advantage when deciding on medical care. If nothing else the physician keeps an ever changing picture of you in mind. In seconds he or she knows exactly how you’re doing. It’s easy to detect when something is wrong, when you’re getting into trouble.

Set realistic goals for your doctor’s visit. Consider what it is humanly possible to accomplish in the 10 or 15 minutes ordinarily set aside for a return visit. Find one or two issues that are most important and make sure you they get the attention they need. Prioritize in other words. But what if you have a number of pressing problems? You’ll have to schedule more frequent appointments. It’s a fact that some people with MS can be seen every 6 months or every year while others need much more attention. Keep the line of communication open and let your doctor know about your concerns. When you are in the room with your doctor, that time is yours. You and your doctor need to tailor a therapeutic strategy for your particular situation. If something critical is not addressed, don’t leave dissatisfied. Let your doctor know.

Be an activist. It’s so easy to sit by and hope that someone else will take care of all of your needs. That is just as much of a mistake in dealing with your doctor as it is in other endeavors. Does your doctor lose you when he or she tries to explain things? Listen up, then get informed. Read all about MS. Learn about some of the problems you may have, and if nothing else you’ll be speaking the same language as the doctor. I have people telling me about their ataxia or LHermitte’s phenomenon, doing part of their own physical exam before they come in the office. A lot of people don’t want to learn about their illness. Maybe they can ignore the terrible truth or leave the worry to someone else. That’s a mistake. Knowledge lessens fear. Learning is mastery. It makes you less dependent on someone else’s good offices and more self-reliant. As an active participant you’ll have the opportunity to find out for yourself, what is new and to be your own advocate. A word of caution: You’ll get a lot further, not by angry confrontation, but in calmly making logical points even when you strongly disagree. Just because you heard something outside that sounds credible doesn’t make it right, and besides, there is room for disagreement. The most productive relationships in any walk of life are built on mutual respect. The most important physician role is to teach and to learn, not write prescriptions.

The smartest thing you can do for yourself is to be positive. I’m always moved by personal striving, whether it’s overcoming depression, throwing away cigarettes, starting an exercise program, finding a hobby, getting out of the house or adding any new facet to your life. Success is not important. It’s the struggle that makes you a human person and fosters a special alliance between patient and physician that makes us a winning team.

-Charles Yanofsky

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