Introduction

Effective communication with doctors and other health care practitioners improves health. Understanding how to communicate effectively and how to go about it are not so simple. As the old expression goes, "The devil is in the details."

Communicating effectively with an individual health care practitioner becomes more difficult when several practitioners are involved. In fact, the more people providing care, the greater the potential for miscommunication. For example, a person may incorrectly assume he has already mentioned an important detail to a particular practitioner, when in fact he mentioned it to someone else. Or differences of opinion among the various practitioners may become overwhelming and confusing.

Miscommunication can be minimized by establishing a consistent relationship with a primary care practitioner. Most often a primary care practitioner is a doctor, although a nurse practitioner or physician's assistant sometimes fills this role. In many ways, a primary care doctor is the health care version of an air traffic controller, keeping track of the actions of each of the practitioners involved and of the comings and goings of medical information.

Having a primary care doctor has many advantages and usually leads to better care. A primary care doctor is most familiar with the person's overall medical history and also learns about the person's values and how they affect health care decisions. Anxiety may diminish knowing that a primary care doctor is coordinating care. Also, the primary care doctor can explain the types of care needed, why such care is necessary, and how often visits should be scheduled. In general, preventive visits are needed more frequently by older people than by younger people.