Some practical tips for patients when seeing your doctor for an office visit
I work in a medial office, and I just wanted to share a few things that make things go much smoother for not only the patients, but also the staff. Too often, patients come to their visits unprepared, which can result in everything from delays in seeing the doctor to having to reschedule altogether. The things I am writing about are generally true for any type of medical practice—whether it is a primary care or specialty clinic.
First of all, arrive for your appointment at least 15 minutes early even if you are an established patient. This gives the front desk staff time to get you checked in and allows the clinical staff a few minutes to prepare for your visit. Showing up late can cause the physician and staff to get behind for the rest of the shift. This, in turn, makes other patients wait longer to receive care. Our office has a 15-minute late policy—after that, patients are usually forced to reschedule. I am sure this is true in many other offices as well.
Have your insurance card handy—and if your insurance has changed since your last visit, it is actually best to call the office a few days before in order to give the information to the front desk staff. It can take several minutes to enter and verify the information when a patient has new insurance. Likewise, if this is your first visit to a particular office, have your ID handy as well.
If you are not able to pay your co-pay or co-insurance, call the office a day or two before your visit. Some medical offices will bill you for these kinds of charges, while others will not.
If you had labs or imaging ordered during your last visit, try to get those done before your next visit unless you have been told to wait to complete them. Sometimes, we have to reschedule people because they did not get their MRI or x-rays done before their visit. If for some reason you have been unable to complete your testing before your next visit, call the office to find out if you will need to reschedule, and save yourself a trip if your doctor needs these results before they can properly diagnose you.
Wear a short sleeve shirt if you are going to have blood drawn or your blood pressure taken. I commonly encounter patients who wear a long sleeve shirt, but then refuse to remove it in order to have their blood pressure taken. This can result in an inaccurate reading. You can always wear a sweater or jacket if you tend to get cold.
Medication errors are among the most common of medical errors. It is critically important that you provide your doctor with an accurate list of the medications you take—this includes any over the counter medications and supplements, along with the current dosage. Ideally, this list will be in alphabetical order—this is how they are most often listed in your electronic medical record, making it less likely a medication will be overlooked, especially if you take a lot of medications. Also, some electronic record keeping systems actually pull in medication records from other clinics, as well as the pharmacies you use, meaning this list will need to be cleaned up in order to remove duplicate listings or discontinued/finished meds.
You will also want to let your doctor know about any injections or medications administered by IV that you receive on a regular basis, such as B12 shots or chemotherapy drugs. You might also want to let them know about any medications you have recently finished, such as antibiotics or a steroid doesepak, for example. Some medications stay in your system for a while after you finish them—and they can occasionally interact with other drugs.
I can’t count the number of times I have encountered patients who don’t even know what medications they are currently taking. This is especially common in men who rely on their wives to keep track of all of that. Keep a list of your meds in your wallet, guys! You never know when you might encounter a situation where that information will be necessary, but your wife might not be at your side to provide it, such as after a car accident or a medical emergency away from home.
If you expect to have any sort of surgery or out-patient procedure, it is extremely important that your doctor know about any blood thinners you are taking. They will also need to know who prescribes it and if applicable, who your cardiologist is, since they may need to get a clearance from them in order to perform your procedure. It is a good idea to have their contact information along with the name of the medication and dosage handy as well—not only for routine office visits, but also in case you end up needing emergency care.
Keeping your physician up to date on your medical history is also very important. Your neurologist may not have access to your cardiologist’s records, for example. If you are a new patient, your doctor may need to send off for medical records from some of your past or present providers. Having their name and contact information is extremely helpful.
If you have any kind of implanted device, such as a pacemaker, spinal cord stimulator, or anything else, you should make sure your doctor has the following information on file—the name of the device, model number, serial number, manufacturer, date implanted, implanting physician, reason for implantation, and the date the device was last checked or interrogated. If applicable, you will want to let your doctor know the name and contact information for your device representative (usually from the manufacturer), if applicable. In most instances, you should receive a card with all of this information from the staff at the hospital who originally implanted your device. You can usually get a replacement copy by contacting the device representative or the office of the implanting surgeon.
If you are forced to wait for insurance approval for a drug or procedure, be patient with the staff at your clinic. It can sometimes take several days or even weeks to get insurance approval for some drugs or procedures—especially for Medicare Advantage plans, Medicaid, worker’s comp or auto claims. Sometimes, insurance companies will not pay for certain tests or procedures unless certain other conditions are met first—for example, some Medicaid providers may be unwilling to pay for an MRI in some instances unless the patient has completed at least six weeks of physical therapy (yes, I know that sounds utterly stupid.) Just know that 99.9% of the time, the staff at your doctor’s office is doing all they can to get insurance approval for the things you need—insurance companies are as much of a pain in the butt for us as they are for you!
Following the advice I wrote about above will make your office visits with your doctor go a little smoother, and will also help prevent medical errors. What kind of issues do you encounter when going to an office visit with your doctor? Talk about it in the comments below!
