Getting care
Bring a question you can read aloud.
Keep this word
Understanding your health
The conversation, records and any needed checks used to decide on a care plan.
Read the cardName what you want to change
Write the concern in your own words. Add what it gets in the way of. This gives you a clear place to return when the discussion fills with unfamiliar terms.
Keep your medicine list and any records you want to discuss together. Ask how to share them before the visit.
Ask for the reason behind the plan
- What exactly are you proposing?
- Why does it fit the problem I described?
- What evidence supports that choice?
- What are the alternatives, including waiting?
If vitamins through a drip into a vein are offered, that is IV vitamin treatment. Ask what would go into the drip and what evidence supports it.
Hormone therapy means treatment with a hormone medicine. Ask which hormone it contains, what it is meant to change and how it would be given. Ask for evidence for that separate treatment.
Leave with a way to follow up
- Who will answer questions after this conversation?
- What follow-up is part of the quote?
- What information would make us reconsider the plan?
Ask for the medicine name, the clinician’s name and the next point of contact in writing. Read the plan back in your own words.