How To Be A Better Patient

Dr. Kabrina Bartley interviews Dr. Thomas Nero on ways patients can improve their outcomes by understanding their medical issues and becoming more involved with their care.  These a a few very simple steps anyone can do

Transcript

How To Be A Better Patient

[00:00:00] Kebrina: Hi, my name is Dr. Kabrina Bartley. And today I'll be discussing how to be a better patient with Dr. Thomas Nero. As we all know, there are many ways you can improve your health, such as more fruits and vegetables exercising three to four time per week and avoid smoking. Even though we tend to know these things, oftentimes we don't do.

[00:00:26] Kebrina: So it's important to think about how you can better help your doctor, thereby being a better patient. Dr. Narrow, what suggestions do you have for patients of how they can help your doctor?>

[00:00:39] Tom: It's a very interesting question because a lot of people know the right things to do, and you're absolutely right.

[00:00:46] Tom: Their exercise and diet are probably the two most important things that everyone can. Obviously no one should be smoking, but beyond that, there are things you can do just to make things a little bit better for your doctor, but really what we're going to be doing is trying to make things better for you.

[00:01:02] Tom: You know, for example, one thing that I tell everyone, and a lot of people are already doing is writing down their names of their prescriptions on a piece of paper and keeping it in their wallet. Now there's a couple of important parts to this one is that you should write the names and amounts of the drugs you're taking.

[00:01:18] Tom: In addition, you should also write down your physician's names and their phone numbers. That way. If there is a problem, you can give this piece of paper to somebody else and they can contact your physician directly. Although it's okay to have it on your phone. I would also have it printed out because a, if you can't talk to someone, you won't be able to open up your phone B you don't necessarily wanna give your phone to somebody else.

[00:01:44] Tom: So if you have it on a piece of paper, then you can actually give it to them. And C you can also give copy of this to somebody else, to a friend or family member so that they can also have a copy. And in case you can't respond that they'll have that information available to. 

[00:02:00] Kebrina: Any other suggestion that you have in terms of what patients can do in addition to this.

[00:02:07] Tom:I think that would be probably the, the minimum people can do. We're really talking about trying to help you to understand your disease processes better because people who understand what's going on with their health tend to be better patients. They tend to take their medications. They tend to remember their appointments.

[00:02:25] Tom: So the first one is that in addition to writing your medications down, It's important for you to memorize all your medications in the amounts. And yes, you know, many people will have five, six, or even seven medications, but I think you can remember five names and five amounts. And if you can't, you are much more likely to forget, to take your medications throughout the day.

[00:02:47] Tom: Memorizing your medications while you're taking them and the amounts. And so that way, if anybody asks you, you can say, oh yes, I'm taking atorvastatin 40 milligrams a day for my cholesterol. The next thing is to try to start taking your own medical record. And this seems like it is a bit redundant because the doctor should have all the medical records in general, though.

[00:03:11] Tom: Doctors are not really as good at communicating with each other as you would expect. I may not get a copy of your echocardiogram was performed at another hospital or with another doctor's office. It's important that you have a copy of that, just so. You can make sure that I can see it if I need it.

[00:03:30] Tom: Then if you go to another doctor or get a second opinion, you already have all that information with you. As part of that, keeping a little diary of what you've been doing and what you've been going through. And if you have any questions, write those questions down. And then when you get to the doctor's office, you won't forget to ask those questions and so by the time you leave, all your questions should be answered. If you have a chance to write down our answers to the questions, patients tend to forget about 50% of what the doctor tells them. We speak fast. We speak in jargon. We try to rush out of the rooms. We're terrible communicators. At times, if you have that piece of paper there and you write it down, at least hopefully it will improve the chance that we're gonna get that information across to you in a way that you can remember it and then talk to your family members about it.  The last way that you can help. And this is one that a lot of people don't think about is bringing a friend, your visit it's your office visit. You can bring whoever you like to it. As long as you're happy with the fact that they're hearing this private medical conversation.

[00:04:45] Tom: I loved when. Especially when men bring their wives or their partners to my office, because I don't only have a second set of ears to hear what I'm telling them. But I have a second set of eyes on the patients who are going to share with me, what's really going on. So for example, I'll ask a guy. How you doing, and they'll say, I'm fine, doc.

[00:05:08] Tom: And the wife will turn to me and say, wait a minute, last week, when you were walking up the stairs, you were short of breath. And what about that chest discomfort? You had two weeks ago. Aren't you gonna tell the doctor that? So that way it really helps me to understand what's truly going on, how bad your diet really is.

[00:05:26] Tom: All those things, because this other person isn't gonna try to please me. They're gonna try to help you. And that's really important to have that advocate there. And then of course, they may hear some things that you're missing. The important parts of all of this are how not to necessarily help me, but how you can be a better patient for yourself.

[00:05:48] Tom: And the more that you advocate for yourself, the more that you are part of your medical care, the more information that you're getting and understanding the better you are going to be, and the better your outcomes are going to. 

[00:06:00] Kebrina: Thank you. Are you basically saying that for example, patients who are more involved tend to have a better outcome in terms of their health, do you think there's like any correlation?

[00:06:11] Tom: It's actually been shown in a couple of studies. Those patients who are better able to communicate with their physicians do have better outcomes. Now, do we have large scale multi-center trials on that? No, because these are all things that are very subjective, but I do know that people are happier. The more that they understand, because they're.

[00:06:31] Tom: Not uncertain about the outcomes. They have more clarity about what is going on with them. And they don't sit there in the middle of the night going, oh God, I wonder what's going on today. I wonder what these things. So just by that level alone, the patients are, do better. 

[00:06:52] Kebrina: Thank you, Dr. Do you have any final words for our audience?

[00:06:56] Tom: No. I, I just hope that, you know, if, if I could get everyone to do these things, uh, I think that everyone was going be better off and certainly the patients are going do better and, and be better patients. 

[00:07:05] Kebrina: Thanks for doing this.