What to Look Forward To on Your First Visit

When you first go to a new doctor, you’re expecting to meet an experienced professional who will take all the time it requires to understand your condition, explain to you what’s going on, and develop a logical treatment strategy to get you headed back toward health quickly.  Then you can begin to relax and let the healing process commence. 

Here’s how I show my commitment to exceeding your expectations:

• First of all, since your time is valuable, I plan my appointments so that I am able to see you at your scheduled time with little or no waiting.   Though I’m not perfect, it would be extremely rare for you to wait more than 10 or 15 minutes. 

• I do have some paperwork for you to fill out.  But I try to keep that bureaucratic part to a minimum.

• The most important part of your first visit is the consultation.  That’s when we take all the time need for you to tell me about your condition, past and present.
  
  
• Another extremely important part of your first visit is the examination.   That’s where we get to the heart of what’s going wrong with you.  One of the main tools I use is palpation.  Palpation means the use of touch to obtain diagnostic information. 

• Based on the consultation and examination, I’ll form an understanding of what has been going wrong for you.  And explain it to you to make sure you understand.  I might even draw a diagram or show you an illustration from a book.

• I’ll recommend a treatment plan.

• With your consent, we’ll initiate some aspects of the recommended treatment to start you getting better as soon as possible.

• In a few cases, additional tests are needed (such as MRIs, Xray, blood tests, etc.)   But in most cases the next important step of refining the diagnosis occurs gradually as we see how you respond to the different treatments you’ll be receiving.  This yields the most important diagnostic information of all, because it reveals what actually helps you to feel better and regain function and health..