A savvy patient understands the concept of patient empowerment, and puts the tenets into practice. The following tools are available to patients to help navigate the healthcare system. Putting them into practice will help you find your best medical outcomes:
Before Your Diagnosis and Treatment
- Choose the right doctor to diagnose and treat you. From determining which kind of doctor you need, to learning about his or her background, these considerations will be important.
- Use a website or the library to help you determine your diagnosis and treatment possibilities. While there are some cautions about the quality and quantity of the search results, these applications can help you determine possibilities.
- Understand the importance of collaboration and respectful communication There are things you, the patient, can do to smooth the edges of medical discussions, and traits to look for in your practitioners, too.
During Your Diagnosis and Treatment
- Take a proactive role in your healthcare decision making. You are the most vital member of your healthcare team.
- Learn all you can about your diagnosis to discuss it intelligently with your practitioner, including your differential diagnosis options. Understanding your options will help you be sure you're making the right choices for yourself.
- Make decisions as objectively as possible. It's tempting, and sometimes difficult to avoid letting emotions influence our decisions.
- Knowing the signs of a misdiagnosis, or understanding the reasons for failure to diagnose, will help you be confident that your diagnosis is correct, meaning, you'll also have the correct treatment options from which to choose, too.
- State and federal laws dictate privacy and security policies for your medical records. Knowing who can have access to them, and how to obtain them, will help you be a savvy patient.
- Informed Consent means a patient understands all the risks and benefits associated with any medical test or procedure. An empowered patient knows how to be sure she understands those risks and benefits, and won't sign anything until she does.
- Prescription errors are a major cause of medical mistakes. Knowing how to verify you're getting the right prescription, and following the instructions for taking it will help the wise patient.
- Sometimes a patient is tempted not to follow the doctor's treatment instructions. But compliance with those instructions is important to healing or controlling an ailment.
- The most savvy patients understand safety in the hospital, from a trip to the emergency room, to knowing how to prevent hospital-acquired infections.
Additional Savvy Patient Tools
- If you decide you need help, you can find a patient advocate to help you.
- Making sure your family understands your medical care decisions will help them in a time of crisis.
- Being a smart healthcare consumer includes managing your costs, choosing good insurance, and learning how to deal with billings and other consumer basics. This knowledge will help you keep control of your finances during a medical difficulty.
- And don't forget the adage about a pound of prevention. Knowing all the difficulties that face us as we navigate healthcare, preventing health problems to begin with is always a good approach.
