Home work for Patients

When you decide to consult a doctor, should you do some preparations before consultation? I think so. It will help in getting the maximum out of the consultation.

Imagine you are referred by your family doctor to a consultant for expert evaluation.
1.Before leaving your family doctor's consulting room, make sure that you have a referral letter to be taken to the consultant. Also ask your family doctor to tell roughly how much expensive the consultation and relevant investigations will be so that you can be prepared.
2.Try to get the contact information of the consultant's clinic. Ring up and fix an appointment.
3.Take all your past medical records with you, even those you think is not relevant.
4.Write down all the problems you face in a paper so that you will not forget anything.
5. Try to tell the consultant your symptoms in the order at which each appeared[chronologically]
6.Don't forget to mention any drug intolerance or allergies you have.
7.After the examination is over, listen carefully to what the doctor have to say about your illness.
8.If he/she is not forthcoming with an opinion ask directly, ' what do you think is wrong with me?'
9.If asked to do investigations, ask when and where to do and when to come back with the results.
10.If a prescription is given, you can ask how long it will take for the symptoms to get better and when to come for review
11.Ask for an emergency contact number at the clinic or the hospital.
12. Get back to your family doctor and give an account of what happened.
If you do all this, you can be assured that you had made maximum out of the expert consultation.