The Smart Patient’s Handbook for Getting the Best Treatment
Take it from those in the know- two of America’s best-known doctors and the Joint Commission, the watchdog for the quality and safety of health care in America- there are steps you can take to make sure you get the very best medical treatment possible.
Learn more from Dr. Michael F. Roizen and Dr. Mehmet C. Oz from a few guidelines they offer in “You: The Smart Patient: An Insider’s Handbook for Getting the Best Treatment.” As you strive to build stronger levels of patient engagement, these guidelines will be helpful to you as a practice and a provider.
Patients seeking the best care from your facility will be looking at this book as a “How to guide” for:
- Creating a health profile
- Choosing the right doctors and hospitals
- Avoiding medication errors
- Preventing infections
- Understanding prescription drugs
- Working with doctors to safely use alternative treatments
- Helping a loved one by being his or her health care advocate.
As a practice and as conscientious providers, come alongside your patients in providing what “The Smart Patient” wants and educating others toward these ends:
- Stick to the Facts. Patients often give medical professionals too little pertinent information and many distracting off-topic details. The first sign of a smart patient is a health profile. To help your patients with this process, learn the right questions to ask them to help them stay on topic, and check out the sample form for creating a health profile in the book labeled “Your Health Journal.” This can also be done online at www.jcrinc.com and www.RealAge.com.
- Have a Tattle Plan. Dr. Roizen and Oz encourage patients to bring their spouses to the medical appointment. This allows the spouse to answer questions the patient might not be able to. As a provider, make the most of engaging family members that can be an advocate and help in understanding the complete patient profile.
- Find Dr. Right. One of the most important decisions your patients will ever make is choosing their doctor. To find a great doctor, patients are encouraged to ask the ER nurse-manager at the best local hospital. A nurse in the intensive care unit is also a good choice. These registered nurses get a battlefield view of doctors at their best and worst. Facilitating patients’ finding their Dr. Right brings your practice one big step closer toward a satisfied patient population. This presupposes that Dr. Right is on the payroll at hour hospital. If your practice has any openings needing filled, let UPS Healthcare help you find the kind of doctor that your patients will trust with their lives.
- Go board-certified. The American Board of Medical Specialties recognizes 24 areas of medical specialty including anesthesiology, cardiology, internal medicine and pediatrics. Patients are encouraged to search for board-certified physicians at www.abms.org or by calling (866) 275-2267. As a practice, do everything you can to ensure those you hire have the kind of credentials that will build the trust of their patients. If you, like many practices, have limited time to find the medical staff with the credentials and character a scrutinizing patient will be looking for, Contact UPS Healthcare for more information about how we can help.
- Case your hospital. To find the best hospital- whether it’s a small community hospital, a hospital in a rural area or a large teaching hospital- patients are encouraged to go for an accredited hospital listed on the Joint Commission’s Web site at www.jointcommission.org. Joint Commission accreditation is the Gold Seal of Approval for a hospital- and that’s what patients want and what you want to be able to provide. The Joint Commission also evaluates ambulatory clinics, home health agencies, home medical equipment companies, nursing homes, laboratories and behavioral health care facilities.
- Know your hospital’s numbers. Research has shown that for several common operations, hospitals that perform a specific number or more of that operation every year have better success rates. Patients are encouraged to contact the hospital’s information line or their surgeon to find out things like:
a. How fast emergencies are dealt with
b. The average time for getting heart attack patients into surgery
c. How many of each type of operation your hospital does per year
d. What the success rate is for different operations
Be sure all your physicians and information line staff know their numbers so that patients aren’t transferred multiple times to find the information they need.
- Make a new “phriend.” Your pharmacist is the least expensive and most accessible health resource patients have. Smart patients develop a personal relationship with a pharmacist, making it easier to ask questions.
- Insist on being scanned. In the medical facility, patients are encouraged to have staff check their ID bracelets before giving any medication, taking blood or wheeling them off for a test. The patient shouldn’t have to worry about this. Your facility personnel should be using a bar-code scanner on ID bracelets every time.
Let UPS Healthcare help you ensure your medical facility and staff are maximizing services and getting at what The Smart Patient is looking for. Contact us today for more information.