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Education
and Training | Library | Caregiver and Community | Professional Training
Planning for the Visit Lack of preparation is one challenge to getting the highest quality of health care for yourself and your loved one. The following are easy to use logs and worksheets that can help you to keep track of your loved one's behaviors, medications, and your concerns and questions between doctor visits. Using these three forms together can also help you to organize, prepare and plan for the doctor's visit. A description of the worksheets is listed below. Think of taking the time to plan for a visit to the doctor's office just like you would plan for other events, such as a party or a presentation for work. Research has shown that people who prepare for their doctor office visits receive a higher quality of health care than those who do not come prepared.
Care Log One way to plan for a visit to the doctor office is by using a care log. A person with Alzheimer's disease or a related illness (especially in the early stages) may not show symptoms during the doctor visit. Therefore, it is important for the doctor to receive important information about the patient between doctor visits, to get a sense of what is happening from day to day, as opposed to a "snapshot" of time. A care log can be used to track any changes in the behaviors, mood, and health of the patient. It is a written record that can be used to help the doctor see what goes on outside of the doctor's office when your loved one is involved in normal, daily activities. Also, writing down this information saves you from having to remember it during the visit. Finally, you can be specific when the doctor asks you questions such as "how long has this been going on?" or "have you noticed any changes over the past few weeks?" Some people have found it useful to fax in their care log before the visit to the doctor. Others bring it with them and hand it to the doctor when they check in for their appointment. Ask your doctor what he or she would find most helpful.
Medication Log A medication log can be used along with the care log to prepare and plan for the visit. A written medication log makes it easy to track all of the medications that you or your loved one are taking, including all current prescription drugs, over-the-counter medications, and vitamins or herbal supplements. We suggest that you take your medication bottles with you to the doctor's office, however writing them down in a log helps to organize this information and can be looked at easily and quickly by the doctor. You can also use the medication log to ask questions about side effects and to write notes about what the doctor tells you. This log can also be useful in case of emergency, because all of the information is written down in an organized way.
Top 3 Concerns Right before you go to the doctor's office, review all of the information you have collected since your last visit. Next, use this form to write down your top three questions or concerns. Again, by writing down this information, you don't have to worry about remembering it during the visit. Also, writing down your concerns and sharing this with the doctor guarantees that each of these three topics will be talked about during the visit. Finally, this will help to structure the visit. Below the top three concerns is room for you to take notes during the visit. When the visit is about over, look over your notes and paraphrase and restate to the doctor what you understood. This gives the doctor a chance during the visit to correct any information or repeat something that was missed.
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