Have a Plan

Have a plan for all your medical appointments.

Sounds simple and obvious, but it is so easy to forget. When you are stressed by a frightening diagnosis or you are facing anxiety producing tests and procedures you can easily forget to make a plan for how to get the most out of your time with your health care team.

There are several reasons why you should have a plan for every medical appointment.

• It helps you have more control over the content and outcome of the appointment.
• It defines and clarifies your issues and concerns so that your health care team can know which areas of your care are the most importance to you at that point.
• It provides a way for you to keep on top of symptoms and issues.
• It establishes the expectation with your health care team that you want to be involved in all aspects of your care.
  

A plan should include:

• Stating the purpose of the medial appointment--why you are there and what you hope to learn that day.
• Understanding the next steps--will you need to schedule follow-up visits, do you need to have lab work done, are there other tests or procedures that need to be considered.
  
• Documenting the information--how will you receive the information--phone call, report, scan, meeting.
• Identifying who to call on your health care team for specific questions, concerns and emergencies--and obtaining phone numbers and emails --be sure to ask about who to call on weekends and after hours.

Having a plan for each visit with your health care team is especially important if/when problems or complications arise. I have learned from experience that there is almost always something that can be tried. Working from carefully considered plans in the past will mean that you have a routine in place to help you problem-solve new issues.