Psychology Today: Why Time Matters – 5 Strategies to Enhance Your Doctor Visits
As a physician raising the bar in palliative and end of life care, I’ve witnessed firsthand how our healthcare system’s emphasis on quantity over quality has profoundly impacted the doctor-patient relationship. The standard 15-minute appointment has become an unfortunate norm in the U.S. healthcare system, driven by insurance reimbursement models that prioritize patient volume over meaningful interactions.
In this recent article for his Psychology Today Series, Permission to Choose, Dr. Bob Uslander, Co-Founder of Empowered Endings, identifies five essential strategies that patients and families should implement to maximize the effectiveness of doctor visits.
5 Strategies to Enhance Your Doctor Visits:
1) Prepare a Written List: Before your appointment, document your questions, concerns, and observations. This written record serves multiple purposes: it helps ensure you don’t forget important points during an emotionally charged visit and provides a clear structure for the conversation with your physician.
2) Prioritize Your Concerns: Understanding that time might be limited, organize your concerns in order of importance. Start with the most pressing issues—whether they’re physical symptoms, medication side effects, or questions about prognosis.
3) Be Clear and Direct: Clear and direct communication is crucial in medical care, particularly when dealing with end-of-life issues. Instead of saying, “I’m not feeling well,” be clearer: “I’ve been experiencing increased pain in my lower back for the past three days, and it’s affecting my ability to sleep.”
4) Bring a Support Person: Having a trusted family member or loved one present during medical visits can be helpful. They provide emotional support, help remember important information, ask questions you might not think of, and serve as an additional set of ears for complex medical discussions.
5) Take Notes and Request a Summary and/or Record the Visit: During appointments, take notes or ask your support person to do so. Additionally, request a written summary of the visit, including any changes to your care plan such as new medications. Alternatively, you can ask to record the conversation.
The implementation of these strategies becomes even more crucial given the constraints of our current healthcare system. While we continue to advocate for systemic changes that would allow for more extended patient visits with physicians, these strategies can help maximize the effectiveness of the time you do get with your physician. Until the current system’s emphasis on volume over value is changed, patients and families that are proactive and have a plan to maximize time with their physician see better health outcomes.
