Taking Stock

Your Appointment

Good communication between doctor and patient is crucial to achieving a patient's health goals. Both doctor and patient have responsibilities in order for the patient to achieve optimal results.

A patient must be prepared when going into an appointment with the doctor. Because a doctor's time is limited, patients should be organized and know what is to be accomplished during the appointment.

For the first appointment with a new doctor, a patient should bring a briefly-written and bulleted description of their medical history. In addition, patients should bring a list of questions and concerns to this and every appointment thereafter.

These written histories and questions help doctor-patient communication and should be the starting point for a patient's education about the condition. These items also increase the likelihood of a patient getting the best outcome from each appointment.

The bulleted medical history should include:

• Previous doctors visited;
• Dates and frequency of seizures;
• Tests previously conducted and results of those tests;
• Brief details of any prior emergency situations;
• Current and past medications;
• Any side effects encountered; and
• Length of time using current medication(s).

Patients should also consider bringing a friend or family member to an appointment, especially if tests will be done. Having someone else there not only provides moral support, but another person can help ask questions or even take notes to guarantee the patient has all the information talked about during the appointment. Having someone else go to the appointment also guarantees a safe trip home afterwards. Some tests, like sleep-deprived electroencephalograms (EEGs), are mentally taxing and render patients incapable of driving themselves. A friend or family member is a safety precaution.

A patient should never leave a doctor's office without fully understanding his or her own treatment program. An important element of each appointment is asking questions about the medications being prescribed and the potential side effects involved. If a doctor cannot clearly dictate the nature of these medications or the side effects, the patient should consult a nurse or a pharmacist as soon as possible. In addition, if the financial aspects of treatment are an issue, the doctor should be notified of this problem immediately so different options can be explored.

Doctors are ultimately responsible for providing a patient with the best possible care at their disposal. The doctor's responsibilities include, but are not limited to, ordering tests and analyzing their results, understanding and being aware of the patient's concerns and wishes, being aware of the patient's responses to certain drugs (good and bad), developing the proper treatment plan, prescribing medication, tracking the patient's progress and coherently answering questions about the treatment plan.

The patient's time is also precious, so doctors have a responsibility to be mindful and courteous of their efforts. Just as patients should help make a doctor's job easier by being organized and prepared, doctors should also make a patient's life easier by being fully knowledgeable of the patient's case, answering questions clearly and being as accessible as possible.