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"These days it sometimes feels like the doctor&amp;#039;s looking at the computer screen more than at you. Is there any way to get his attention? Dr. Oz: That&amp;#039;s a very valid concern. Here&amp;#039;s what I suggest: Go in with a concrete idea of what you need from the visit. Start off by saying, &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;m here for three things. My knee&amp;#039;s bothering me. I&amp;#039;m not sleeping well. And I&amp;#039;m worried about this mole on my arm.&amp;quot; At least you&amp;#039;ll know your issues are on the agenda, and your announcement should pull the doctor away from the computer. Three things?! That seems optimistic in today&amp;#039;s rushed office visits. Dr. Oz: You can help by doing all the rote work first. I love it when my patients do that \u2014 then I can have a real conversation with them. But if I ask, &amp;quot;What medications are you on?&amp;quot; and you have to start fishing in your bag, but then that&amp;#039;s not all the things you&amp;#039;re on, so you have to call your loved one at home...well, we&amp;#039;ve just wasted seven minutes. Then I only have time to do a quick exam and say, &amp;quot;You need thyroid tests. See my secretary on the way out and she&amp;#039;ll schedule them for you.&amp;quot; That&amp;#039;s very frustrating for me, too. In a recent survey of doctors, quite a few said they were stressed because of difficult patients. What are the biggest problems? Dr. Oz: The main one is not being compliant \u2014 sorry, that&amp;#039;s a terrible term, but that&amp;#039;s what we say in medicine. These patients may not realize they&amp;#039;re not doing what the doctor said, or they may not have understood its importance, and we doctors don&amp;#039;t realize we&amp;#039;re not getting through, so the patient keeps coming back with the same problem. A similar thing can happen during a visit. I&amp;#039;ll say, &amp;quot;Ma&amp;#039;am, you&amp;#039;ve asked me that question three times, so I must not be explaining it right. Please help me understand where I&amp;#039;m losing you.&amp;quot; It would be great if more doctors asked their patients that... Dr. Oz: Actually, my mother taught me that \u2014 I didn&amp;#039;t learn it in medical school. Suppose you disagree with your physician. How can you talk about it without causing more problems? Dr. Oz: Disagreements come out of arrogance \u2014 on the doctor&amp;#039;s part, that is. We think we know it all. And, truthfully, it does take a certain amount of arrogance to tell people what to do. So stick with facts. Say something like, &amp;quot;You gave me this medication to help me sleep better, but I find that when I take it, I have shortness of breath and I can&amp;#039;t sleep.&amp;quot; You haven&amp;#039;t accused the doctor of anything, like &amp;quot;Those were terrible pills you gave me.&amp;quot; If you have shortness of breath, it&amp;#039;s a fact. Have you ever had a disagreement with a patient where you realized you were wrong? Dr. Oz: Actually, it was because of an argument with a patient that I became interested in integrative medicine. The woman was on a mechanical heart and absolutely needed surgery or she would die. But she wouldn&amp;#039;t have the operation unless her energy healer could be with her. Now, I was probably pretty dismissive. I didn&amp;#039;t want any extra people in the operating room, and I thought she was focusing on the wrong thing. But after much discussion, I understood better. Having the energy healer with her meant that she wouldn&amp;#039;t be alone. It took away her fear. So I said OK, and then I began to look into other kinds of alternative practices that could be integrated with main-stream medicine. Next: Why you should bring a friend \u2014 not your husband \u2014 to your next doctor&amp;#039;s appointment. You talked about extra people in the OR. But what about at a doctor&amp;#039;s appointment? If you have a serious problem, should you have someone with you? Dr. Oz: I think it&amp;#039;s a great idea \u2014 if it&amp;#039;s the right person. I always tell men, &amp;quot;Bring your spouse next time.&amp;quot; But I don&amp;#039;t tell women that. Husbands are good for driving you to the appointment, but if you want someone who&amp;#039;s going to remember what was said \u2014 and studies show that patients remember only a fraction of what was said in a doctor&amp;#039;s office \u2014 you&amp;#039;re better off with a savvy friend. One more thing: Remember, doctors have a human side, too. You can tap into it. If you say, &amp;quot;Listen, Doctor, I don&amp;#039;t know how this is in your life, but this is my husband, the man I love the most, and here&amp;#039;s my fear,&amp;quot; it gets our attention, pulls us away from the computer screen. Then we can have a more open, more meaningful discussion \u2014 which really is the very best office visit. Alert: Parting Shot Never leave a doctor&amp;#039;s office without a game plan, Dr. Oz advises. &amp;quot;Ask when tests will be back, who&amp;#039;s going to call whom.&amp;quot; A recent study makes clear how important this is: Researchers found that doctors failed to notify patients of abnormal test results (or record they&amp;#039;d done so) in one out of 14 cases, with some practices slipping up as often as one out of four times. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/health/advice/a17820/doctors-appointment-advice/>