10 Simple Tips to Being A Great Patient!
1. Appointment times. Aim to be a little early; and at the very least, on time. If you are really late, you may lose your place and be worked into the schedule accordingly, or even be rescheduled.
When this happens, please don't complain because the bottom line is that it doesn't matter if it wasn't your fault. Late is late and depending on how late you are, a doctor's office can always require you to reschedule, so apologize, suck it up and wait your new turn.
If you are being driven and have a cell phone, give them a courtesy call of your late status as this may help you to not be rescheduled.
If you are driving, please DO NOT use your phone; pull off of the highway to somewhere safe to call. You are already late, so be safe and late!
(See box on bottom right for 1 more smart tip related to not being unnecessarily late and frustrated!)
2. Paperwork. Most doctors' offices these days have websites on which, you will find a link to their paperwork. The really good ones allow you the option of filling it out online and submitting electronically in advance of the appointment. This means you don't have to show up as early.
In my case, my severe spinal cord and other nerve damage makes filling out paperwork a true pain in my neck as well as my hand, so I print it out a few days in advance and try to work on it a little at a time to not set my pain off.
If you have nerve pain or rheumatoid arthritis that makes writing a challenge, do the same thing to keep it from being a stressful task.
If it's a hardship for you to complete, call and tell your doctor's office and ask how they would like to handle? They should offer to have you come early to sit with a staffer who can fill it out for you, or they may find someone to do it for you over the phone at that time.
Realize though that when it comes to new patients, it makes sense to just have you come early because if they invest time to do it and then you are a N/S (no-show), they've wasted precious time. Thus, if they won't do it until your arrival, that's fair and reasonable, don't get mad.
3. Your questions. Make a list of questions and leave space between each to write the answers. Let's face it, pain muddles a person's mind and pain pills, nerve damage pills, muscle relaxers, sleeping pills, anti-anxiety pills, etc., ruin a person's memory.
If you are on any or all of these, you can think that you will remember, but I promise that when on these Rx's for an extended period of time, your memory will be compromised. (You will even find this fact listed as a side effect for some.)
Thus, take a list of written or typed questions with you. If everyone did this, appointments would actually go much faster for all parties because the doctor wouldn't have to stand there while you go "Wait a minute, it's important, it's on the tip of my tongue, it'll come to me."
Sure it will, probably a few hours after you get home! So, take a few minutes to do this and believe me, not only will your visit go more efficiently but you will be glad that you did when you can easily refer to these answers for later reference.
Remember, you don't want anyone making your life harder,
so don't do that to yourself and
the other patients who want to be seen on time too.
4. Prescriptions. Most pain doctors require pain patients to bring their Rx's with them to the appointment. If you are new to being a pain patient, now you know! Put them by your purse or a secure bag, backpack, etc., so that you don't forget them. (Never leave them visible in your car and PLEASE BE discrete when taking them in public. You don't want to be mugged by some drug head.)
5. Test results. Yes, they are written by doctors for doctors. But the bottom line is that they are about you so don't let their inherent "doctor speak" (a.k.a. medical terminology) stop you from asking for a copy so that you can follow along and make notes on them as the doctor explains them to you.
You truly NEED to understand all of your diagnoses to make the best choices for your care. It can be overwhelming and even intimidating to read these reports but YOU are the one who has to sign off on releases for every treatment and surgery saying that you understand everything, it has all been explained to you, your questions have been answered, blah, blah, blah.
For most patients, this is a legal technicality far more often than a truthful reality since most don't understand
what is in their reports, exactly what is wrong,
and by default, what treatment is best.
They just blindly trust doctors to know what they are doing
and that is not good for anyone.
Put blind faith in ALMIGHTY GOD first and foremost for He is Who heals us, not doctors!
So get involved and make the effort to learn what is in your reports so that YOU too can contribute to your best results! Remember, it is your health and your body on the line so if you are not proactive in learning and listening and speaking up when you don't, you're rolling the dice. Roll them in Vegas, not in your doctor's office, on your health or life!
6. Communicate and Participate. You can't always forecast what questions to ask, so although you should have a list of them ready, do not hesitate to ask more as they come to you in the appointment.
When your doctor talks treatment plan options, they are giving you the chance to realize what choices you have in your care. Ask questions.
There are no dumb questions but there sure are plenty of people who are so afraid to appear dumb, that they ask no questions and leave their doctor's office as in the dark about their health condition as before they went. (Now that's dumb.)
So please, don't be intimidated to ask anything.
Believe me, doctors want to know that you understand them and when you don't, that you let them know this.
Doctors are not mind readers and you can't expect good results if you don't communicate clearly and actively participate in creating and following a successful treatment plan. (This advice holds true for all of your relationships, personal and professional!)Here's a sample of reasonable questions:
Does it hurt?
Do I have to be put under?
What is the success rate?
What is my best case outcome potential?
What is the worst-case possible outcome? (Please realize that certain health conditions can lessen successful outcomes, like poorly managed diabetes. If you are one, talk to your doctor about modifying your diet and walking because most who are could do much better with these simple efforts that are well worth the healty results!)
How many of these have you done?
Will my insurance pay in full or should I expect out of pocket costs?
If so, exactly how much? Most docs do not get involved with knowing things like this, but at least ask her/him so they can get their insurance person to help you.
When is your next opening?
How many follow-up visits will that require?
Do you offer rides? (Though the exception, there are practices that do.) Will I need to do physical therapy afterwards, and if so, how many?
On this note, permit me to deviate for a moment to remind chronic pain people about the importance of doing volunteer work and/or nice things to help others, despite your own challenges, if you can.
When I was doing physical therapy, I was making my appointments for the next 10 or 11 visits when I heard an elderly pain patient next to me tell the girl that she couldn't schedule her appointments because she didn't drive and had no ride.
I stepped over into her scheduling area and said, "Hi, my name is Grace and I'll be happy to get you to and from P.T.; just please set her appointments up to coordinate with mine."
She was beyond grateful and it made me feel good to do good!
So please chronic pain people, I know that there are many days where you are lucky to get yourself out of bed and showered.
But I promise you, helping others despite your pain, will ultimately help you too.
7. Rx/Vitamins/Herbs list. With the proliferation of herbal remedies today, many people, like me, take a myriad of supplements in addition to their Rx's to enjoy good health as naturally as possible.
It doesn't matter if you aren't having surgery, you should have an up to date and organized list of what you take, its dosage and when you take it. If you are having surgery it is even more important that the doctor have this list.
When having my spinal surgery in early 2010, I presented my list to my neurosurgeon. I had Garlic and Gingko Biloba on it. He told me "Just to be on the safe side, don't take anything that starts with a g for 10-14 days before surgery as it may thin your blood."
Though my surgery was not a particularly bloody one, thinning blood can lead to hemorrhaging and death.
Also, list the reason that you take each supplement next to it because just as your doctor has things he/she needs to teach you, this is a two way street.
I have had many providers ask me if they can keep a copy of my list so that they can share it with other patients because I've enjoyed so much success from my herbs and vitamins. I say please, of course! (See my herbs, vitamins and supplements pages to learn which have gotten me, back 2 good and greatly reduced or even, eliminated some of my Rx's!)
8. Expectations. Have reasonable ones. To put it in perspective, I am going to share a little story that may seem unrelated initially; but I promise, stick it out and I'll tie it in!
I have my cosmetology license and on my first day in the salon, my manager taught me to say "Honey, I'm a beautician, not a magician!" to women with baby fine hair who would bring in pictures of women with a gorgeous head of thick hair and say, "I want you to make my hair like hers." Uh huh.
I would instantly put my shears and comb down and not pick them up again until I knew that my client understood every single major difference between her hair and the model's; and realized that even if I did the same cut, her hair would not look like the model's from just a haircut. Extensions, perms, thickening shampoos, volumizing products, serious teasing and spraying, may get her closer; but just the haircut? Nope.
It's the same thing when you are a pain patient.
You need to be realistic about all of the factors
that will play a role in how well you can get.
Damage that is not addressed right away is, (barring a miracle), never going to heal as optimally as damage addressed properly at the time of injury.
Another fact is that the surgeon can give you the best procedure possible, but if you don't respect your post-op restrictions and care, you may ruin the result.
Also, when a person has numerous areas of damage, even if all procedures are done well, there are no guarantees that the body will respond with a complete recovery in every effort. Nerves, muscles, tendons, ligaments are an intricate, interwoven group.
Not everything can be seen on tests.
Great surgeons do their absolute best every time they enter an O.R., but they are only human and can only do what they believe to be right based upon the test results they receive and what they see once you're cut open.
If there is damage that didn't show on a test, they are not magicians either and can only work with what your body presents. (See, I told you I'd tie my salon story in!)
Speaking of which, when you get an MRI done, they position you a specific way to get the absolute best view for the strongest results.
So please listen to them and stay how they tell you, otherwise, you can compromise these very important results on which surgeons base their decisions for your best care.
And if you are obese, your results are already going to be compromised because fat obstructs views. Did you know that?
If you are claustrophobic, ask for an open ended machine. If they do not have one and/or you are severely claustrophobic, arrange IN ADVANCE with your doctor for a mild sedative and be sure to have a driver.
9. Set yourself up for success. If you know that your pain and Rx's make it hard for you to get to the doctors for an early morning appointment, don't book one.
If you know that your doctor always runs behind, book one of the first two appointments of the morning or after lunch because in my experience as a medical tech and clinical supervisor, doctors don't normally come out on the floor to start seeing patients until they have at least one patient in every room, ready to be seen.
Another upside is that unless there is an emergency,
the less patients there are,
the less behind they will be at these times.
PLEASE do not wait
until you run out of your Rx's
to request a refill.
Pay attention to your refill status
which is listed on the bottle.
If there are 0 refills left and you know that an appointment will be required in order to refill it, make a note
on your calendar when you have a 30 day supply left,
to call your physician and schedule.
If an appointment won't be necessary,
call them 7-10 days before you run out and put in a refill request.
My medical office training was top notch and something I rarely find matched as "a professional patient".
The first M.D. practice that trained me in the 90's,
required us to return every patient's call the same day
as well as handle all Rx refills and denials, just as quickly.
In other words, to their credit, they put patient care above profits.
Which, considering that they were the largest and most successful four office practice for their specialty in our region,
proves that you can succeed while simultaneously providing consistently excellent patient service!
When I became a Clinical Supervisor for a 3 provider multi-million dollar surgical practice that saw 120-160 patients in two, three hour time blocks, three days a week, I implemented this same policy.
Sadly, that common decency and efficiency, has not been the rule in all of my years of healthcare in Texas.
It has even become common for me to see notes up in doctor's office saying that patients need to allow them 3 days to handle Rx refills; and even worse, for the doctor's staff to be so lazy and incompetent and uncaring that after 72 hours are up, I HAVE TO CHASE THEM DOWN TO GET IT DONE.
I honestly could not sleep at night if I were a provider and knew that patients were suffering pain because my practice didn't place a priority of Rx refill requests quickly all in the name of saving on payroll!
This is so lazy and uncaring that it is offensive to say the least; especially when I see staff standing around chatting with each other! In food and beverage, when staff is standing around chatting, a common manager motto is "If you have time to lean, you have time to clean."
In healthcare it needs to be "If you have time to chat, you have time call patients back!"
After all, it's called "work" for a reason. Get the job done, help every patient to the highest level each day, and then do what we did, go to happy hour to have your personal chats!
Maintenance medications are those that a person is one for a long term period, possibly for life such as hypertension (high blood pressure) medications, diabetes medications and in the case of chronic spinal pain, pain and related Rx's for never damage, muscle relaxers, etc.
Any time you are on a maintenance medication, your doctor's office should be writing your Rx quantity for the maximum amount allow by law to be dispensed at one time to save you both time and money.
I.E. 1 pill a day = a quantity of 90 = a 3 month supply.
If you take 2 pills a day for a maintenance Rx then the quantity should be 180 because it saves you, them, and your insurance carrier, time and money.
My insurer actually instructed me to make these requests and it make perfect sense so I did. It also simplifies tracking refill needs when done on a quarterly basis.
And last but far from least....
10. Know when to keep your pie hole shut. When younger, I worked as a medical tech for an excellent group of corneal surgeons. I will never forget some of the drama queen and king post-op patients who would sit in the waiting room after their cataract surgery, screaming how they couldn't see anything; scaring the daylights out of new patients who were there to schedule this same surgery.
What these patients conveniently neglected to say is that they had severe diabetes that was poorly controlled because they were non-compliant patients who ate what they wanted instead of what they needed to; and that this poor choice led to permanent and irreversible damage to their retinas called "Diabetic Retinopathy".
Thus, their poor vision had absolutely nothing to do with their cataract surgery. It was the rule that most of our patients with no diabetic retinopathy or other diseases that lessen success, saw 20/20 or close to, the morning after their cataract surgery.
Given that spinal surgery is a lot more serious and scarier than the average cataract surgery, please, keep your drama to yourself.
Pain patients have enough of their own without others adding to it.
If you let others scare you and bring you down, you are only reducing your ability to get the best benefits out of your care choices.
If you have to get up and move seats to escape a doomsayer, do it, I have. If you aren't that bold, go to the bathroom and then just sit somewhere else when you return! These days you can pretend someone just texted you to get out of a conversation with negative people!
Seriously, do whatever it takes to save yourself because when someone is determined to be miserable and spread it, you need to remove yourself from them and their negative, unhealthy energy because negative energy doesn't just affect you, it infects you, so don't let it!
