Ever feel rushed by your doctor and forget to ask something?  DocAsap has compiled some online tips to help you maximize your next doctor visit:

• An AHA article recommends you bring a notebook to list out your questions and to take notes.  Also, slow down doctors to double-check instructions, and be bluntly honest with doctors.
• A Kaiser flyer also stresses honesty as well as repeating instructions and voicing disagreements.
• An amusing Men’s Health article recommends you “don’t rub your eyes or scratch your schnozz until you’ve treated your mitts with hand sanitizer” since waiting rooms are rife with germs.  The article also suggests you talk to nurses to get more information and see female physicians since they tend to spend longer amounts of time with patients.

Please add any other tips you have to share!

Health Affairs made available an article entitled “Take Two Aspirin and Tweet Me In the Morning”, which concerns patient empowerment via social media technologies.  It’ll be interesting to see how social media uniquely evolves in healthcare, as privacy issues loom and doctors might not buy in to it unless economic and clinical value is clearly evident.  Firms like Kaiser and Hello Health that are giving patients better access to care and more information are ones to watch, though the article also alludes to the nascent nature of such endeavors.   Furthermore, pure online treatment will likely only ever be an add-on to traditional offline doctor relationships, as you can’t take a shot, get a root canal or perform surgery via the internet (at least not now!).  Still, getting more information about and communication with doctors might radically improve access to care, something DocAsap is passionate about.

According to a recent Kaiser Health survey shared by Health Populi, more than half of Americans put off or reduced health care due to sensitivity to copayments and deductibles as a result of the recession.  Also, the rising ranks of uninsured due to mounting job losses adds to the number of patients who are not seeing doctors as a result of the recession.  While the stimulus bill did provide for a 9 month subsidy of COBRA payments to offset 65% the cost of insurance for laid off employees, this will not completely offset the recent increase in uninsured Americans, and won’t encourage those with insurance to see the doctor.  This decline in visits by insured patients provides much of the reason behind the recent financial troubles faced by many U.S. hospitals, such as U of Chicago, as well as the increased cost of floating rate debt due to the credit crunch.

Many hospitals are now facing the difficult decision of whether to cut their budgets in light of tightening operating margins.  We expect that as the economy stabilizes and as the COBRA subsidies kick in, patients will quickly make up for postponed visits.   We hope that economic recovery comes soon for the sake of patients and doctors.  Additionally, we at DocAsap look forward to helping doctors see more patients in the coming months as we launch our service.