7 mistakes by patients while visiting a doctor

You may be anybody but I must assure that you have to visit a doctor at least once in a life. As we all know the era of medicine has been so much advanced till date, we are confused to select a doctor or the treatment suggested by him or her. That's why we can't explore our best to the doctors to represent our problems. Though it's a duty of doctors to elaborate your history and pick out the prognosis, we should prepare ourselves to make doctors comfortable to diagnose and consult easily. It will be much easier for the doctors to interact with you while taking your history. Here are 7 tips to avoid the miscommunication with your doctor.

 

1. Let the doctor ask all the questions

Sometimes patients explain themselves too much and don't stop for the reaction from doctors. They narrate all the story without understanding the question from doctors. Yes, you are the first one to start the conversation but that doesn't mean you complete all your session in a single breath. Wait for the cross question from doctors and help them to dig out the diagnosis by answering their way, not yours. Sometimes patients ask questions to the doctors and doctors can't explain them as they haven't reach to the diagnosis and important history yet. So follow the doctors before you put your queries.

2. Keep patience if you are a patient

As a patient everybody is in hurry and want to cover up as early as possible at the hospital because nobody wants to stay longer in hospital. But that doesn't mean you forget the rules and regulations of the hospital. Others are also patients with same or different crisis so respect them too. Don't rush for your turn illegally. Especially in government hospitals where large number of patients are waiting for their turn, you must have some patience.

3. Show your old reports not the bills

It's good to bring all your past relevant reports to the doctors. It's hardly recommended. But that doesn't mean you keep all your hospital bills and medicine bills in a same file. Help the doctors to present only useful lab reports or other required documents only. Extra junks will consume doctor's time and that may lead to improper history by doctor in hurry. It is quite advisable to arrange the reports in a file from old to new. Keep latest reports on top of the file.

4. Complete the suggested treatment

Treatment will be only fruitful if you follow it exactly. If you aren't intended to go through doctor's way of treatment, you can't be cured easily as you think. It's a common habit of patients to not complete the medicines for the given duration. Most of them feel good after completion of one or two doses and after that they ignore to consume the remaining medicines. This may lead to major issues and in case of antibiotics this type of bad habits develop resistance crisis in future. So don't avoid to take full course of medicine even if you feel fully cured. Besides these sometimes you need a follow up visit at the end of treatment or meanwhile the treatment. So don't avoid it. Follow up visits at different stages of long treatment is a crucial part of curing the intense diseases.

5. Don't argue with doctors

You may not be satisfied with the diagnosis by a doctor. You may have to visit the another doctor but that doesn't mean you raise queries with that doctor. Sometimes arguments and comparison of one doctor in front of another doctor don't sound well. You may lose the attention of the doctor instead of pleasing him or her. Doctors try their best to explain the situation in couple of minutes which they have studied for years. So it's a tedious task to make patient assure of their current condition. In such situation if you sound in higher tone, you may have to suffer for the upcoming problems you don't know. Don't argue with doctors and let them work on their way without interruption.

 

6. Don't elaborate your personal life instead of related history

This is the common problem for the rural area where patients tell everything except disease. They elaborate economical questions and social queries which are never going to be solved by doctors. I have seen some patients who start to tell the stories of their inlaws or neighbors instead of own physical problem. This is totally distracting for the doctor to catch the correct diagnosis of yours. Though some socio-economical problems may related to stressed mindset, you should concern specialist for the mental health rather than wasting your time with a general practioner. Don't ever try to enable your emonational mode to grab extra attention of the doctor. So keep in mind that you must elaborate the things which are on priority for the current visit.

7. Hiding the important information

It usually happens to the medico legal cases where patients or their relatives may try to hide some important stuff related to situation. This may sometimes lead to miscalculation in diagnosis. You can't expect a satisfactory treatment without revealing everything about the case. Even you should remember your past adverse events related to medicine or treatment and that should be told to your doctor imediately. Don't lie to your doctor.

Final Funda: Do not let your mobile come out from your pocket while visiting a doctor. It may lead to distraction of doctor and distruction of your wallet according to your mobile brand.