confidence vote
1. Listening
Which general practitioner feel the girlfriends well? Which gynecologist takes time to explain findings? In which practice are patients treated courteously, even if they do not allow themselves to be cheated on every IGeL offer? The best source for such tips is your own circle of friends, acquaintances or colleagues. Even self-help groups can give good hints. However, it is always important to have your own impression (a questionnaire to check under www.arztcheckliste.de). In addition, worthwhile: ask the doctor, as he considers it with visits by pharmaceutical representatives. Independent physicians are more distant from these.
2. Prepare
Since when are the current complaints? How and when do you show yourself exactly? Are there any special features? Is the temperature elevated? Anyone who deals with such questions before the doctor's visit saves time in the consulting room - for other information. It is best to write down everything you want to know from the doctor on a piece of paper. So nothing important is forgotten even with a short appointment.
3. Inform
With a cold, it is not necessary to take a look at the internet before visiting the doctor. But in the case of more serious illnesses or even chronic ailments, it is always worthwhile to make sense of yourself: What are the common forms of treatment? What new findings are there? Do guidelines for therapy exist (information for patients at www.awmf-leitlinien.de), and what do they say? Are new drugs or methods being tested? "We need well-informed patients to ask the right questions when talking to your doctor," says Professor Ingrid Mühlhauser, health scientist at the University of Hamburg. Information on diseases can be found at www.patienten-information.de and www.gesundheitsinformation.de, on scientifically proven therapies (experts speak of "evidence-based medicine", EbM) at www.cochrane.org.
4. Be honest
How much do you drink? What is your nutrition like? How much exercise do you do and how regularly? Many patients cheat when it gets embarrassing - and that bothers the doctors. 66 percent expect patients to cheat on issues such as eating habits, alcohol or smoking. And 46 percent are disappointed that patients do not follow the advice they receive during the consultation. But an honest balance and good cooperation pay off.
5. Show self-confidence
Some cash patients now feel like a petitioner - after all, relevant posters in the waiting room suggest that health insurance companies are ruining doctors. However, good medical care is available to everyone. Nobody has to wait three months for a doctor's appointment - then ask another doctor. Incidentally, according to the new figures of the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians for the first quarter of 2009, the total compensation of physicians on average increased in the year-on-year by 7.8 percent nationwide. Most patients can only dream of such wage increases!
6. Demands
"Patients need to demand good information," says Ingrid Mühlhauser. If you did not understand everything that the doctor said, you should keep an eye on it. This is especially true for IGeL offers. What should they bring? Are there any studies available? What are the advantages for the patient? Is there a similar health insurance? Even medications should not be taken uncritically: What is the benefit of a preparation compared to the risk? In how many patients did the drug work? And what side effects are to be expected? For chronic diseases such as diabetes, asthma and heart disease there are now special treatment programs (Disease Management Program, DMP short, or Chronikerprogramm). The health insurance companies can provide information about it. Before undergoing extensive treatment or intervention, private patients should seek and compare the cost estimates of multiple physicians. Something that also pays for cash patients with services that they have to pay in whole or in part out of their own pocket.
7. Trust the feeling
Anyone who doubts that they are treated optimally should definitely change the doctor or at least seek a second opinion. Also important: The chemistry between the doctor and the patient must be right. By the way: The reception staff sometimes allows conclusions about the climate and the tone in practice. But a waiting room with a luxury hotel ambience does not necessarily say something about the quality of the treatment.
Read on
New patients - new doctors? Medical self-understanding and doctor-patient relationship in transition by Winand Gellner and Michael Schmöller (ed.), 224 pages, 39 euros, Nomos Verlag, 2008
