A diagnosis identifies a patient’s health problem, and is vital to accessing the care and treatment patients need. This is why correct and timely diagnosis is critically important in ensuring patient safety and improving health outcomes, stresses the World Health Organization (WHO).

Effective communication between patients and their doctor is an integral part of diagnosis. Research findings show that 60% to 80% of medical diagnoses are made on the basis of information arising from a doctor’s medical interview of patients alone, as are a similar proportion of treatment decisions. Good patient-doctor communication can also enhance patient compliance to treatment which, in turn, improves health outcomes and patient satisfaction.

Moreover, by facilitating accurate diagnosis and enhancing treatment compliance, effective patient-doctor communication can contribute to cost and resource effectiveness in healthcare by helping prevent unnecessary prescriptions for medications.

Improving communication between patients, families, caregivers and healthcare professionals (HCPs), as well as improving professional teamwork among HCPs, are among the approaches to achieving diagnostic excellence. Diagnostic excellence encompasses multiple practices to improve diagnosis, including ensuring that diagnostic tests are ordered, interpreted, communicated, and acted upon appropriately, according to the “Core Elements of Hospital Diagnostic Excellence” published by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Approaches to achieve diagnostic excellence are designed to prevent missed, delayed, and incorrect diagnoses while reducing unnecessary testing and overdiagnosis. Diagnostic stewardship involves strategies to guide the optimal use and interpretation of tests, improving processes and systems to support clinical decision-making, and tracking and learning from patient safety events related to missed, delayed, or incorrect diagnoses.

“When patients, caregivers, and the healthcare team communicate openly, it can improve the time it takes to make a diagnosis and help avoid missed or wrong diagnoses. It is essential that everyone involved in a patient’s care feels comfortable asking questions and sharing their concerns,” the CDC toolkit stated.

The toolkit offers the basic tips for patients and caregivers to prevent diagnostic errors and support diagnostic excellence in the hospital setting. One of these is to know the names of the attending doctor and the nurses caring for you in the hospital. A patient must have online access to their electronic health record and patient portal, if at all available. Also, make sure your medical and medication history is up to date. It is also good to know how to alert your healthcare team about changes in your condition.

The toolkit also said that before a test is ordered, ask why it’s needed, who is scheduling it, when it will be completed, and what to do to prepare. Discuss the results with your doctor, and make sure you understand what they mean. At discharge from the hospital, ask what the follow-up plan is and be sure you get detailed information about future tests and treatments.

The American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) also offers important tips to help patients get the most out of their clinic consultation with their doctor.

One of these is to think about concerns and questions you have for your family doctor. Write these down. Good starter questions you can ask your doctor include the following: What do my symptoms mean? Should I be tested for a disease or condition? What caused this condition? And, How serious is the condition?

Also to be asked are the following: How is it treated? Are there any side effects to the treatment? How long will treatment take? and, How will this condition affect my life now and in the future?

If you are a new patient, bring as much information as possible with you to help your new doctor learn your health history. If you are not a new patient, you only need to bring information with you that is new or has changed since your last visit with your doctor.

Write down your health history in a “health journal” that can include things like health problems you have or have had, blood pressure numbers, recent symptoms, food eaten, or a sleep diary. Bring the journal or health history to your appointments.

Talk to your family members to see if they can come with you to your appointment to listen, take notes, and ask questions.

Effective communication between patients and physicians leads to better health outcomes. When patients are actively involved in their care, they are more empowered in making healthcare decisions that are best for them.

 

Teodoro B. Padilla is the executive director of Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Association of the Philippines which represents the biopharmaceutical medicines and vaccines industry in the country. Its members are in the forefront of research and development efforts for COVID-19 and other diseases that affect Filipinos.