Asking Questions To Get The Care You Need
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (www.ahrq.gov) has a section called “Navigating the Healthcare System”. In this area of the website, AHRQ Director Carolyn Clancy, MD, has prepared brief, easy-to-understand advice columns for consumers to help navigate the health care system. Dr. Clancy’s latest column is about asking your physician questions about your care.
In this article, Dr. Clancy explains the need for asking questions. The reason is very simple: patients who ask questions get better quality health care and often get better results. Dr. Clancy states, “It’s hard to ask questions when you’re not sure what the problem is or how to express your concern.” She further explains, “That’s why it is important to be prepared for appointments by thinking of your questions before your visit, writing them down and bringing them with you.”
The Web site also features a “question builder” that lets patients create a personalized list of questions to bring to their medical appointments. This is a very useful feature because it’s easy to forget a question—even a basic one—when we’re taking in a lot of new information.
The AHRQ and the Ad Council have teamed up to produce new public service announcements for the “Questions Are The Answer” campaign. Those ads remind patients in a light-hearted way that doctors can’t read their mind. Here is one of the public service announcements:
For more information, go to AHRQ’s Navigating the Healthcare System