Tips to Help an Aging Parent Communicate with Their Physicians

You don’t have to be an aging senior adult to experience a lack of communications with physicians. Many problems with communication occur due to lack of preparedness on the part of the patient and lack of time spent on the part of the physician.

Some senior adults, are fortunate to have a primary care physician who has been their doctor for many years. Therefore both are well acquainted with their medical history and past treatment plans. However, included with the many changes in the outpatient medical physicians practices these days, the primary care physicians are retiring in droves. Many have accepted offers they couldn’t refuse, by pharmaceutical companies or other specialized, corporate conglomerates, to purchase their medical practice. These contractual agreements often include terms as to when the original practice physician will depart from the newly bought practice and when new, already selected physicians will begin working under contract, in the newly purchase practice.

It seems the good ole days of caring family doctors is in the rear view mirror. As a child I remember Dr. Marcus Welby MD the best family doctor ever. He had a kind bedside manner, knew all the important details past and present of every patient, and made house calls. Sadly this era has disappeared and gone forever.

In the past few years, many primary care physicians would hire, train, and work along side their self-chosen replacement, as they over time planned out their retirement and what would happen to their patients.

Now a days, according to the National Institute on Health, you only have 18 seconds, which is the average time a doctor waits before interrupting a patient.

Photo by Maks Styazhkin on Unsplash

Patient Advocacy for an Aging Adult

I have to say based on my own experience with doctor visits of late, once one finally gets back to the exam room, one’s nerves are spent in waiting, reading and signing paperwork, and wondering if you will be able to get out before the traffic gets bad.

Noticing, reading, and researching all the data around viruses and vaccines the last five years, I’ve concluded all seniors could use a patient advocate. In fact, they should be encouraged to have one and not for the reason of being incapable of managing their own doctor visits. A family member, a friend, or neighbor, could be the additional person to be present during the doctor visit to help with getting all the details, directions, and Q&A that will be discussed during the often hurried doctor visit.

This type of advocacy often proves to be beneficial as in the saying two heads are better than one. And the patient is usually a bit stressed over the need to have to see a physician and being uncertain about the outcome. In those situations, it is difficult to remember all the information and directions that are communicated in such a hurried, quick manner.

Tips for a Successful Physician Visit

As a patient it is important you are able to obtain, communicate, process and understand basic health information. If you have any hesitancy in this regard, then plan for a patient advocate to go with you.

Here are some simple tips to make the most of an aging parent’s physician visit:

• Have a list of concerns in order of importance to you.

• Have a list of all current medications, vitamins, other supplements, & allergies.

• Make note of all health and life changes since your last visit.

• Make a list of all your doctors/specialist you see on a regular basis

• Make a list of your questions and write down the answers.

• Have a pen & paper to make notes of the physician instructions.

I would recommend that the senior adult patient keep up with this type of information and keep it updated per each physician appointment. Of course if they don’t want to or feel too pressured to do this, then their advocate should do so on their behalf.

Once the decision is made as to who will advocate on the senior adults behalf, it’s important that each physician office has the needed authorization forms processed in order for a family member or advocate to accompany the patient and participate in the conversations.

Patient’s Physicians Relationships is Key to a Parent’s Aging Plan

Having a good match between an aging parent and their physicians is key to obtaining crucial information to guide the development of a senior parent’s aging plan.

One of the goals is for the adult son or daughter to learn more about the physical, mental, and emotional status of their aging parent. As more facts are known, there is a way to plan for the trajectory of certain illnesses and diseases creating more details for what could be anticipated in the months and years to come. This paves the way for making plans together in determining the parents’ future needs.

In addition, often certain medical crises, leading to more physical or mental decline, can be avoided. A few that come to mind are a debilitating fall, medical complications related to a mix-up of prescription drugs and dosages, difficulty driving that has not been disclosed, new symptoms that go unreported to family or doctors.

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