A specific request for help makes all the difference

Healthcare is all about the patient. Yet, what a patient wants to get out of a consultation is still often overlooked in (the preparation of) consultations. Patients often come with complaints, but have not yet thought about what they want to achieve. For example, clarity about a diagnosis, or being able to ride a bike again. This makes consultations less effective and increases the likelihood that the care does not fully address what the patient really needs.

By actively asking for help, you encourage patients to think about their own healthcare needs and expectations.

This has two major advantages:

• Patients feel better prepared and heard because they are explicitly invited to think about what they need.
• Physicians can act more quickly and purposefully, because they can immediately understand the core of the care question.

If you do this in advance in an auto-anamnesis, it also means that patients can think about it calmly in advance. The doctor can read this in preparation for the consultation and can ask more specific questions. This makes asking for help extra effective.

A simple question such as "What do you expect from the conversation with the doctor?" supplemented with some examples of possible requests for help, can already clarify a lot.

If we include the request for help as standard in the autoanamnesis, patients become more aware of their care needs. The result? Better-connected, more personalized care and more efficient consultations, in which the physician can respond directly to what really matters to the patient.