As a patient, you have a limited time that you spend with your primary care doctor. In an ideal world, you could spend hours with a doctor, but in reality, you don’t. It is for this reason that patients are advised to prepare for their visit to the doctor. For one thing, it helps you make the most out of your visit and prevents time wastage. Here a few tips on how to prepare for a visit to your center for primary care services.
Bring All Your Medical Records
Lab test and imaging results, vaccination records, and your insurance card should be brought to the clinic. Some centers require medical records to be sent to the clinic beforehand. If you have access to your electronic medical records, call up the clinic and ask if you should forward them ahead of time. Your primary care doctor needs to know your complete medical history, including your past illnesses, previous operations, and current medical conditions to help them provide the best care.
Prepare a List of Questions
Sometimes, patients blank when inside a doctor’s office. To prevent this from happening, have a list of questions that you want to ask your doctor. Examples of questions include:
- How often should I come in for a check-up?
- What are my health risk factors?
- Are there health screenings I should be having?
- Are there vaccinations that I need to get?
- Is my weight normal or should I bring it down further?
- How can I improve my overall health? What health goals should I be establishing?
- How can I better manage my condition/disease?
Bring Your Medications
While you can list down the medications you are taking, this method does leave room for mistakes. It is recommended that patients bring all the medications they take, including supplements. The doctor can give you advice on medication management and let you know if there are supplements you can do without.
Provide a Detailed Account of Your Symptoms
If you are at the center for primary care due to acute symptoms, make sure to provide a detailed account of the symptoms:
- How long have you had the symptoms? Can the symptoms be connected to an incident?
- Are they persistent or intermittent? Do you have attacks? If so, how long do they last?
- Are the symptoms worse in the morning or late at night?
- What activities make your symptoms worse?
- What treatments have you tried and what relieves symptoms?
- Are you in pain? Describe it in detail. Where does it hurt?
The more you prepare for your visit, the better you will feel about it. For further tips on how to prepare for your visit, call the clinic and ask how to better prepare in advance.
Center for Primary Care in Irmo, SC
Our primary care providers at SC Internal Medicine Associates and Rehabilitation, LLC specializes in internal medicine. We are experienced in providing care and treatment for adults. Unlike other centers for primary care, we strive to build and maintain meaningful relationships with our patients. Your health and well-being are very important to us. If you have questions about our services or would like to schedule your visit, call (803) 749-1111 or request an appointment online now.
