Simple Ways to Make the Most of Your Next Doctor’s Appointment

By Sanaz Amirpour

Let’s face it: you probably don’t get nearly enough time with your doctor to address your complex needs during an appointment. After all, doctors are only able to spend just 18 minutes or less with a patient before they’re out the door and into the next exam room.

“I see a lot of patients with multiple illnesses and chronic conditions, but realistically we only have time to address one or two issues in the allocated time we have together,” says Maryam Yeganegi, MD, PhD, a resident at Yale-New Haven Hospital.

In an ideal world, the insurance system would change so doctors would be rewarded for quality of appointments, not quantity. But in the meantime, being an engaged patient and going into your appointment with a plan may help ease some of the anxiety of your visit. (Research suggests that being an engaged patient could also lead to better health outcomes and lower overall cost of care.)

Go beyond a mental checklist with these tips for making the most of the time you do have with your doctor.

How to Prepare for Your Next Doctor’s Appointment

Create an Outline

Before you head to your appointment, have a rough idea of what you would like to discuss with your doctor — and write it down. “Think about what health problem is most urgent, then work from there,” says Yeganegi.

She recommends that your outline cover the following questions:

• What are the top three health problems you are experiencing?
• Which one is most urgent? Tests and diagnostics can often wait, but there are some things that can’t, such as severe abdominal pain or feelings of suicide or self harm.
• Do you need to get or change any medicines you are taking?
• Are there any tests you would like to have done or know more about?
• Are there treatment options or surgery that you would like to talk about?

Know Your Medical and Family History

Being honest about your medical and family history can be one of the best ways to help yourself, says Yeganegi. In her practice, information about known allergies, surgeries, diagnoses or abnormal tests all matter in how she approaches a patient’s case.

Adding your family history to the appointment outline you make can give clues to medical conditions that may run in a family, according to the National Institutes of Health. That’s because families often have many things in common, including their genes, environment and lifestyle factors.

Bring a List of Your Medications

You may be seeing a specialist for your eczema while you see your primary care physician for your migraines. Chances are, you are on different medications prescribed by each doctor.

“Always keep a list of all the different medications that you are on and share your list with all of your doctors,” says Yeganegi. “Your doctors will want to know about any conflicting medications that may cause further complications.”

Simply knowing the color and shape of your medicine is not enough: Know the full name of each one and why you are taking it. Bonus: keeping a medication list doesn’t only keep you safe, it can help you begin to remember the names of your medications and rely less on your doctors remembering what they’ve prescribed you, says Yeganegi.

Keep a Symptoms Diary

At the first sign of pain, you should take pause and mentally think about what could have caused it. If your symptoms are recurring, Yeganegi recommends that you make a note of the following things:

• How long have you been feeling the pain?
• How has the pain evolved from first feeling it?
• What is the pain like for you now?
• Is the pain constant?
• On a scale of one to 10, how much does it hurt?
• Did you take anything for the pain?
• Did the pain get better?

“Answering all of these questions can really help to pinpoint or eliminate certain causes, then I can broaden up and try to address underlying issues,” she explains.

For symptoms other than pain, keeping a daily symptoms diary can help you remember what you were feeling, along with when and how long you were symptomatic. What were you doing at the time you felt the symptom? Did this happen right after you took medication? If so, which medications? All of these details may help your doctor narrow down the cause of your symptoms.

If You Research, Bring a Printout

Most doctors don’t recommend Googling your symptoms, but if you prefer to research, Yeganegi prefers that her patients tell her about it or bring her a copy of what scared them the most. That way, she can address any fears, clarify any inconsistencies and really get to the root of what is bothering her patients most about what they read. She often spends some time explaining what a research study actually meant, and tries to debunk any myths perpetuated by certain sites. If your doctor doesn’t offer this up, ask if they’d be willing to go over some troubling findings with you.

Take Notes

Taking a small notepad with you to your appointment (maybe the same one where you keep your symptoms diary) can empower you to ask for clarification along the way as you jot things down, says Yeganegi. Unfortunately, if you are in pain or feeling at all distracted, it may be really difficult to take coherent notes. For more complex information, such as medication instructions, you may want to free up space on your phone or tablet to take a voice recording of your visit. Just be sure your device is password protected, and delete information once it’s no longer useful, she says.

Be sure to ask before hitting record: Different hospital groups may have different rules about recordings, says Yeganegi. If that’s the case, ask for a printout of detailed instructions to take home with you, and don’t be afraid to follow up after the appointment if things aren’t clear, she says.

The Takeaway

It’s clear that at the end of the day, you may need to have a few different tricks up your sleeve to get the best outcomes from your doctor’s appointments. Just know that being overly prepared is never a hindrance to your health and is a welcome change for most doctors, says Yeganegi. After all, making an effort to make the most of every doctor’s visit is the first step to finally getting to the root of your health problems, one appointment at a time.

Article originally published April 22, 2016 on Chronicality.com