Advice For Patients Seeking Consult With Their Physicians (Whether In The Clinic Or In The Hospital)
1) Bring copies of prescriptions or even used foil packs of recently taken medications.
This is important, especially if you can’t always remember the names and you are seeking the services of a physician whom you haven’t consulted with before. It is no good trying to describe the physical characteristics or form of your medications to your doctor because almost all tablets/capsules look alike. It is not useful to do guesswork, for both the doctor and the patient, especially when it comes to medications.
2) Know the name of your doctor.
It is rather embarrassing asking for your doctor by describing his/her hair color/length, body habitus, attire, or type of car he/she drives to the receptionist or to any of the hospital or clinic staff. Also, to know the name of your doctor is a sign of respect.
3) Do not call your doctor very late at night or during the wee hours, unless it is really an emergency or he/she told you that it is all right to do so.
Doctors work irregular hours and sometimes have sleepless nights in a row. But doctors are also human beings. We need to sleep, too, you know. You may be unnecessarily disrupting a much needed and deserved rest by making inconsiderate calls.
4) Do not take it against your doctor if he does not reply to your text consultations, but rather asks you to just see him in his clinic.
Filipino patients just LOVE to make text consultations. But patients can rather be vague with descriptions regarding their illnesses. Here are some examples:
"I have cough and colds and fever. What meds do I take?"
"I have stomache. Can I take this medication?"
"Why does my knee still hurt?"
These are just some of the text consults I’ve received which cannot be fully answered unless I see the patient. Prescribing medicines is not as simple as categorizing each as whether it is anti-cough, anti-colds, anti-stomache, etcetera. In interviewing and examining a patient, different algorithms, depending on the complaints and present health condition, run through the mind of a doctor, trying to discern the origins of such signs/symptoms. These algorithms are also guides for ordering the appropriate laboratory tests. So don’t begrudge your doctor. It is important that he sees the patient personally. An exception to this is that if the doctor already knew the patient’s history very well and the patient’s complaints are similar to an associated chronic illness that the patient have.
5) Be compliant with the medications prescribed to you.
It is rather useless going to the doctor again and again for the same complaints when you do not follow the regimen prescribed to you. Discuss with him whatever it is that hinders you from taking the drug: financial constraints, undesirable side effects, unavailability in the locale, etcetera, so that adjustments can be made.
6) Please be reminded that clinic hours are not the same as hours in the office which can be strictly implemented.
Most patients complain of the long times they spend waiting at doctors’ clinics. But there are lots of valid reasons for the doctor to be late or not show up in his clinic. This is especially applicable to doctors who handle surgical/ob-gyne/ICU cases, which are emergencies most of the time. Doctors, in turn, should keep their clinics informed about his availability for that day or ask someone else to do it for them, in case they’ve got their hands full. If your complaint really can’t wait any longer, proceed to the emergency room so as to be attended to. But don’t expect to be treated immediately, especially during the busy days, because triage works in the ER; emergency cases are always prioritized.
