I often find myself perusing the interwebs while at work (strictly for research purposes ?) and, like an informed citizen, I was catching up on some news. I stumbled on this lovely video titled, “How to get health care like a billionaire“… I don’t know about you, but since this election cycle started, every time I hear or read the word Billionaire, I summon my inner Bernie Sander…

I digress… The title caught me immediately so I took a look at the video and sorta felt like these are all things are what any and all of our Patient Worthians would do and probably have been doing since their diagnosis.

So when you get a diagnosis, here are some questions to make your doctor earn his/her paycheck:

1. I understand that you believe I have this disease, but how confident are you in the diagnosis?
2. Is there anything else could this be?
3. Are there more tests that can be done to confirm this diagnosis?
4. Was the lab test sample good/the imaging clear? Would it make sense to 
get a second read?
5. Have you read all my medical records to get the full picture of my symptoms? Would it help if I went over them with you?
6. You say I have an abnormal blood test/a lab abnormality and that we can treat it with medication. But is it possible that this is indicative of a bigger problem? Are there other tests we should be doing to rule out serious diseases?
7. Before we move forward with treatment, are you confident we’ve explored all my options?
8. I appreciate what you’re saying, and it sounds very serious. I’d like to get copies of my lab reports/imaging/medical records in order to get a second opinion.

Some doctors, as they say, may feel offended that you would even take a second opinion, especially if this person has known you for a while. But at the end of the day, this is your body and you need to take care of it the best way you see fit.

So where do they get these ideas from? There’s a book out there (which I am planning on buying today) called “The Patients Playbook” and it is essentially a guide that allows you to traverse the maze that is a conversation with your health care team in order to get higher quality care. Believe it or not, just asking questions for the sake of asking them is not enough to get you the high quality care you need. Asking the RIGHT questions is, and it can even lead to you realizing whether or not your current doctor is up to the task of giving you that quality health care you deserve.

Once you gotten the book, let us know what you think in the comments section below or shoot us a note on Facebook or Twitter and we can start a conversation about it!