Patients don’t get to demand specific treatment plans or even diagnose themselves. They rely on a physician to oversee their care and make all of the major decisions. People trust their doctors to do what is best for them, but not all doctors provide the same standard of care for their patients.
In some cases, doctors are dismissive of a patient’s concerns. They don’t take their self-reported symptoms seriously. Delays in diagnosis can have dire consequences for those with serious maladies. Patients may need to become their own advocates in scenarios where their doctors don’t provide them with appropriate support.
How can patients navigate a scenario where doctors don’t take their concerns as seriously as they should?
Ask them to note the conversation
Doctors generally have an obligation to update a patient’s chart after every interaction and appointment. In many cases, they may only include the bare minimum details about the encounter. Asking a doctor to specifically include the symptom complaints that the patient reported and the doctor’s dismissal of the symptoms can sometimes prompt a physician to reconsider their opinion. If nothing else, the chart should then accurately reflect the encounter the patient had with their doctor.
Request a copy of the medical records
After having the doctor add notes to the chart about the interaction, the patient can then ask the support employees at the practice to provide them with a copy of their medical records. Under federal statutes, patients have a right to review their medical records and to request physical copies. In some cases, they may have to pay for printing. However, they should be able to leave the office with a copy of their recent chart records.
Seek a second opinion
With the medical records in hand, a patient can seek out another appointment with an unrelated health care professional. They can provide the chart to the other doctor if there are questions about their current treatment. The second opinion could potentially result in the other doctor ordering tests and arriving at an appropriate diagnostic conclusion. In some cases, there could be a significant gap between the doctor initially dismissing a patient’s concerns and the date when they finally receive an accurate diagnosis. Their condition may have substantially worsened by then. They could face lost wages and increased medical treatment expenses.
In these situations, the patient might have grounds for a medical malpractice lawsuit. Discussing what happened with an attorney familiar with malpractice litigation could help frustrated patients hold doctors accountable for dismissing their valid medical concerns.