It’s Friday the 13th so I thought we ought to start the show tonight by talking about bad luck and how to avoid it with your doctor!Join me at 8 pm Central (6 p.m. Pacific, 9 p.m. Eastern), won’t you?Terrie

Last night’s radio show was great. We discussed the reason that angry and frustrated doctors pull even further into their communication shell and in so doing, they interfere with a patient’s adherence to instructions and modalities intended to get them well. This discussion was based on research done by Dr. Jodi Halpern

Then we discussed 5 mistakes effective patient advocates can avoid. This discussion came from an article by Dr. Vicki Rackner.

Enjoy the show and see you next Friday night!

Terrie

What a fun call tonight! Thanks to everyone who participated either before or during the show.

We talked about different needs that patients have and some complaints they’ve expressed online .

A caller wanted to know if you should list your herbals or supplements when you fill out the list of "stuff" you’re on. She also wanted to know how to approach asking doctors about herbals when you hear that certain things are good for you.

We spent a fair amount of time talking about preventing prescription errors. I discussed Trisha Torrey’s recommendations from her website

Enjoy!

Listen to the latest BlogTalkRadio show!

This is pretty cool. It’s called BlogTalkRadio and you can listen on the internet.

The first show for "Your Doctor Said What" is tomorrow, Sunday 1 April 2007 at 4 p.m. Central time.

You can call in and discuss any doctor-patient communication issues you have (no medical advice is given).

Call-in Number is 718-664-9958 - Listen here 

Talk to you tomorrow!

Terrie

We discussed all that tonight on BlogTalkRadio Show - Your Doctor Said What!

It’s important that your expectations be realistic. Patients tend to diagnose themselves by talking to their friends, neighbors, co-workers (or going online) and that is not a great thing to do.

Patients judge a doctor’s  office based on other offices they’ve been at.

If the doctor spends more than 10 minutes with you, dont expect that every time.

How to judge your doctor’s communication skills:

- Does he smile?

- Is there open body posture? Does he lean forward?

- Does he make eye contact with you?

- Does he nod?

- Does he interrupt you - studies say that doctors interrupt patients 23 seconds into the interview.

- What’s his tone of voice like?

- Does he summarize what you discussed?

- Does he paraphrase your symptoms for you?

- Do you feel empowered?

Then we talked a bit about perception. Probably not enough though.

Listen in and see what you think..

Terrie

What a great BlogTalkRadio show tonight! Rebecca McCulloh (pastor and mental health counselor) was my guest again. Tonight she did most of the talking because the topic was about things that occur outside the doctor’s office. We discussed how to talk to others about your medical problems. One thing that came up was that if you ask someone about their medical problem and they can’t really describe things to you (and you know it’s not out of embarrassment), then that’s a big red flag that they may not understand what it is the doctor was telling them. You could then try to suggest that they call the doctor’s office to ask a few more questions.Rebecca also mentioned that it’s not a great idea to tell someone to call you if you need anything. The reason is that the person you’re talking to probably will never call you because they have no idea what it is you can do for them. Rather, you should say “hey, I can take you to the doctors or I could come over and babysit for you if you need a rest” etc.. Be specific about what you can do for the other person.Rebecca also discussed CaringBridge.com again and explained that it’s not just for terminally or severely ill folks but for anyone who might need to or want to be able to spread the word in a less intimate manner.Listen to the rest of the show:

Last night’s BlogTalkRadio show was alot of fun. I found an article about patient complaints but the neat thing about it was that it discussed complaints doctors had about patients.

Here’s a summary of each group’s complaints - in future posts I will discuss each of these:

Doctor Complaints                                            Patient Complaints

 Enjoy the show:

I had a wonderful interview today with Mr. Carl Ames of WIBA in Madison, Wisconsin today!

Turn off the BlogTalkRadio show by hitting the pause button (you’ll have to scroll down) and hit play on the interview!

Terrie

Another great show. The media player on the left sidebar seems to have the volume low. I hope it wasn’t like that on the actual show. But I have a recording here that you can play and should have better luck.

I had two terrific guests:

Dr. Signe Dayhoff is a Social Psychologist and author. A coach & trainer for over 20 years, she helps individuals struggling with self-presentation anxiety (which includes fear of small talk, stage fright, and self-promotion reluctance) to present themselves confidently and competently. She also helps you master interpersonal communication skills so you can be socially effective in almost any personal or work situation. Check out her website at http://www.effectiveness-plus.com .

My second guest was a long time friend of mine, Wendy Gelberg. She has been a career coach/advisor and resume writer since 1995, working with people at all stages in their careers and in a multitude of occupations and industries, from entry level to executives. Prior to that, she held jobs as a high school history teacher, a college instructor (educational tests and measurement), a secretary at a university, and a career coach at a career center. Her passion is teaching, in classroom/workshop settings and one-on-one, and she loves facilitating those “aha” moments when people discover information that is meaningful and helpful to them. Check her website at http://www.gentlejobsearch.com .

Both these women discussed the fact that there isn’t much difference between dealing with authority figures in everyday life  and dealing with doctors. I hope you enjoy the show.

I also mentioned two great websites that I’m going to put on the links. These are terrific patient advocate sites and have excellent information for you.

They are www.everypatientsadvocate.com and www.diagKNOWsis.com

Check ‘em out and see if they don’t give you good information.

Terrie

Here’s the show: