First I see the secretary and she asks me a bunch of questions, then I see the nurse and she asks me the same questions, then I see the doctor and she asks me the same questions again. Why? In the name of Og why?
Because sometimes people give different answers to the tech/coordinator and to the doctor. I work in medical research, helping see study patients in a clinic (mixed in with regular patients), and it happens fairly often that you think you’re getting a full medical history, list of medications, whatever, and then when the doctor shows up, more information comes out (and sometimes the doctor gives you the stink-eye like you’re being a slacker). Usually it seems like the patient has had more time to sit and think, and remember forgotten things. Some coworkers have had instances where it seems like the patient is intentionally withholding info because they only want to tell the doctor.
Even if it’s just me asking questions, patients forget/neglect to tell you things that more questioning can turn up. If I’m getting a medical history and I ask about all past and current medical/health problems, I’ll get some, and the patient insists that’s all. Then I ask for the medications they’re currently taking, and the patient starts telling me meds for high blood pressure, high cholesterol, thyroid problems, all sorts of stuff that they completely failed to mention. So I ask “you’re on ____, does that mean you have (condition)?” and they say “oh yeah…”
So you’re saying that the three people question you separately, then have a confab and compare notes? That doesn’t really seem to make sense.
Good point - normally ‘secretary’-type people don’t ask many medical questions (maybe why you’re there), just stuff like insurance card and if your address is still up to date. The way we do medical history/complaints is to have a tech-type (no nurses in our office) take the info, then the doctor looks at it and asks some pertinent questions back to the patient, to confirm the information and question further.
Okay, this might sound a stupid question, but why do you have to ask them for that information? Isn’t that what patient files are for?
You may be expecting an efficiency that’s not there. The receptionist probably takes your form and files it away somewhere. The phlebotomist and the x-ray tech and doctor and other health professionals you see down the line probably aren’t even looking at the same papers that were filled out by the upstream folks.
In the event the doctor does get a clip board full of forms that was filled out by you, it’s probably easier for him to fire off a few key questions at you that it is for him to sit down and review everything on the forms to see which boxes you checked.
Well, you don’t necessarily have that with new patients, so you do need to ask then. Also, I work in a specialty (ophthalmology), so sometimes if you get records from another office, they don’t pay attention to non-ophthalmic health problems or medications, while we’d really like to know that info.
If it’s an established patient, sometimes things happen between appointments that you have to update the files on. Some people only come in once or twice a year and develop health problems in between that can have a big effect on eyesight, like diabetes.
A coworker had one patient insist that he had no new meds, no new problems, etc. Doctor walks in the room, asks the patient how he’s doing, and the patient chooses then to mention that he has AIDS. We don’t care about it from an infection perspective - we care because there are eye problems that are much more common in people with suppressed immune systems. :smack:
Get the history first hand from the patient. Second or third hand from the chart isn’t good enough. I was admitted at a teaching hospital twice last year and the number of students, doctors and nurses practicing getting the history would have been maddening if it weren’t my only contact with people most of the day. Anyway, they deliberately teach them to do this.
I would also guess that some people have an easier time discussing certain medical issues with a doctor/nurse of one gender or the other. Be it sex stuff, drug use or whatever… For me, it’s more a question of attitude than gender (it’s really hard to talk about your sex life with some high strung, no nonsense judgemental doc than a friendly, joking one. YMMV), but I could see it being a factor. Even more so for teenagers.
In Spain and if you are in your usual location (Spanish Social Security has sort of become split along “autonomous region” lines, which is a PITA precisely in cases like this), any doctor that’s in the system has access to your complete information.
But if you go outside the system, or to a location with a different subsystem, they do need to get your history. They only get it once per subsystem/location, but then, Spanish judges would toss on its ear some suits that get failed against the defendant in the US.
You don’t want them to get it off the chart. For all you know, they could be looking at the wrong chart, i.e., somebody else’s. Just answer the questions.
I have sat in on a consultation that went like this:
Doctor: And have you ever had a problem with your heart?
Patient (and husband): No no, nothing like that.
Doctor leaves the room
Husband turns to me: She gets this angina, you know…
I left swiftly to give the doctor this “update”.
Often patients give different information depending on how the question is phrased, as well as depending on who is asking (not just that they might give better answers to doctors, some may find men or women or older or younger people easier to talk to, some may find particular person’s manner makes them more comfortable).
Overcollection of data is common in all industries. I just dealt with a police report, where I called to report a car with a smashed window and a hole where the radio should be. The first answerer dug out all the info I knew, then said she would send me to some department. Who asked from scratch and sent out a cop. The cop knew only my address and that it was a property crime, and I told it a third time. The car’s owner returned and will also have to repeat it all to his insurance company, who will ask for the police report to see if it matches. Four bureaucrats, four tellings, probably adding to more staff time than the radio is worth.
also it might help you refine your answers. people are often nervous going to health care situations. you might not answer completely the first time. but in between things come to mind and you can answer more completely.
As a 22 year old female, most of the last 4 years of healthcare have involved multiple lines of questioning as to whether or not I could be pregnant.
A former roommate (nursing intern) used to gripe that people didn’t answer questions about potential pregnancy properly - tons of people think they’re answering the question “are you trying to get pregnant or are you currently pregnant”. That is not the question - the question is, could you could be pregnant (aka, are you sexually active, and have you been ANYTIME in the past 9 months). People assume using a method of birth control (any method, no matter how lax) means they’re not pregnant. Nope, not me!
But yeah, after a lifetime of being around healthcare professionals…tons of people lie, all the time. I have otherwise intelligent friends who lie to their doctors about their drinking (if they’re underage, they say they don’t) or who lie about how much they drink, for whatever reason. People who “only smoke when they drink” aren’t real smokers, etc…
But for the rest of us, furryman, I agree that it does stink to be asked over and over again.