How to survive your hospital visit series: When you speak with the E.R. doctor
Your quality of treatment can also be enhanced by what you do when you speak with the E.R. doctor.
1. Create a timeline. Telling your doctor when symptoms started and subsided is almost as important as relaying what they felt like. The sequence of symptoms can provide clues to the diagnosis.
2. Discuss your vital signs.
3. Include the minutiae. Divulge details that are not in your medical file, such as dentist visits and recent travel trips.
4. Take a whiff. Since E.R.s are fast paced, its hard to know when a doctor or nurse last washed their hands. There is an antiseptic foam used in E.R.s to kill bacteria and viruses which you can recognize because it smells like cheap gin.
For the full article.
Bookmark: 
