Patient Preparedness For Your Visit To The Epilepsy Doctor
Dr. Arun Swaminathan practices neurology and specializes in epilepsy management at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. He offers all therapies for epilepsy including medications, epilepsy surgery, ketogenic diet, and devices like VNS or RNS. He is also heavily involved in research into innovative therapies for epilepsy. more
Doctors and patients seem to spend less time with each other as the years go by.
Increasing patient volumes, need to ensure accurate and detailed patient charts, reviewing external imaging studies and lab results and haggling with insurance adjusters, and discussing prescriptions and refills with pharmacy representatives are contributing to the ever-increasing workload for physicians resulting in cutting into time reserved for the most important people in this line of work - the patients.
Patients find that there is an ever-increasing dearth of time to spend with their doctors and often receive a few minutes only of their precious attention. Inability to discuss their care in detail, a cursory examination, a lack of depth of conversation into their care are often among the pet peeves that patients report in satisfaction and customer care surveys asking them to describe their experiences with their doctors.
Patients and physicians alike would like to improve the quality of their interactions and ensure satisfaction and happiness of both parties to ensure patient satisfaction and trust along with minimizing the occurrence of physician burnout and miscommunication.
Here are some simple pointers for patients to follow prior to and during visits to their epilepsy doctors:
1) If you are a new patient, ensure that you arrive a few minutes prior to your appointment. Being a bit early ensures that you have enough time to check-in and not cut into your appointment time with your doctor.
2) Please keep any records that you may have about your care with you. If possible, send it into your doctor's office in advance, but keep them on you to review with the doctor anyway.
3) Keep a list of questions that you think of before the visit on you - in writing if possible so that you can cover them all and not miss any of them.
4) Ensure that you confirm an effective way to get in touch with the doctor's office for future communications. This will make it easier for you to reschedule appointments or follow up on results or ask for guidance.
5) Try to look at testing results before you come into the appointment. This way, you know what the lab tests showed and can discuss the results appropriately. If your imaging results are confusing or complicated, please make sure to discuss them in detail with your doctor.
6) If you are running late, please notify the doctor's office so that they can plan accordingly. If the doctor is running late, please remain patient. Emergencies occur all the time and can delay your physician. Please be patient with them and your fellow patients as well.
7) If you are unable to keep your appointment or need to reschedule, please try to do it as soon as possible. Waiting times for appointments are long and many offices would appreciate advance notice to enable rescheduling and fitting another patient that needs that appointment.
8) In the current era of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, discuss your options for a telemedicine or telephone appointment.
9) Please make sure to confirm your medications and correct dosage with your doctor at every appointment to ensure that there is no confusion.
10) Please confirm your pharmacy at every appointment and ensure that you have sufficient refills for medications in place. This will make sure that you are not falling short of medications before your next appointment.
11) If you have any questions about costs or insurance coverage for your tests or prescriptions, please discuss them with your doctors. We may not have all the answers, but we can guide you to someone who probably does.
12) Many physicians will also offer copay cards for medications, especially the newer or more expensive ones. Please ask your doctor if you have any questions about the costs of your medications.
13) Always discuss any other major medical or social changes in your life with your doctor. These may affect your care in ways that you may not anticipate and sharing them with your doctor can help both of you plan accordingly.
14) Please bring along a family member or friend to help you during appointments, especially if you have problems with remembering things or following instructions. Having them join you over the telephone is also an option.
These are some of the things that you can do to ensure a good quality visit to the doctor. Please discuss with your doctors' offices to confirm that you have followed all the procedures that they recommend.
Good luck and stay safe and healthy!
