Giving an accurate and complete medical history to all of your
doctors is very important to helping make sure you receive adequate
care. Some people are unsure about giving accurate records. Sometimes
this concern about medical history is because of an embarrassing
episode. Perhaps you had a sexual transmitted disease in college and
don’t want others to know. Some patients will fail to report any
treatment for mental illness because they don’t want to let others know
about the illness. Still others are concerned about lectures regarding
alternative treatments and so then omit them.
Leaving
information from your medical history can result in inaccurate medical
treatment. Though you may think that the information you are leaving
out is unimportant, it could be the key that ties symptoms together or
gives a practitioner information to give you the best medical care.
Should you have trouble remembering all of the medications and
treatments you have had, then you may want to get a copy of your
records and bring them with you. Give the new a copy of the relevant
information and keep the copy for future needs. There is an option,
however, for people who do not want to record the information or share
it with the receptionist.
You can put as much information as
you feel comfortable disclosing on initial forms and then tell the
doctor about other problems. You can explain your concerns with writing
the information down, though you should know that a good doctor will
make a note of the additional information. Still if you are one of the
many people who feel less comfortable divulging information to
administrative personnel, then you can preserve the integrity of the
medical history and keep your personal integrity intact as well. This
method will give the provider the information he or she needs about
your medical history while help you feel more assured that your
information will remain confidential.