Prepare a consultation with a doctor for your child.
From the first week of his birth, your child will have to become used to the presence of the white blouses around him. Doctors check the growth and the development of children and diagnose when necessary. You have a role in the efficiency of the doctor evaluation work, how can you prepare?
Before the consultation
You can choose for your child to be followed by a family doctor or a pediatrician. The first can see him without any restriction, while the second is limited to the age of maturity of 18 years old. It is a completely personal choice who will not harm your child. Anyway, if a more thorough consultation is needed, you will be referred to a specialist or redirected to the E.R.
After you have chosen your specialist and you have obtain an appointment, you can list the questions you have. Those can be regarding the health, the alimentation and the development of your child. You can prepare him by being franc with him on how a consultation goes. Use simple words that will be easy to understand. To reassure him, he can carry with him a blankie or a doll.
When he is older, ask him to speak himself with the doctor and remind him that your presence is not necessary. It will make him feel more at ease to speak with the professional. Above all, to be well prepared for an appointment with the doctor, there is a list of items that you should not forget to bring with you.
During the consultation
The professional has the task of measuring the development and the growth of children. Once in his presence, ask all the questions you have listed prior to the appointment to be sure you maximize the meeting. Make your child participate by asking him directly questions and by letting him answer himself to the doctor so they can create a trust bond. For the smaller ones, don’t be abrupt with them and be reassuring.
The pediatrician and the family doctor do not only take care of the physical health of children. They also evaluate their affective and cognitive development and their alimentation. This makes the consultation the perfect time to discuss with professionals about everything that concerns your child.
Between appointments
After the first year of life of your child, he will see his health professional at least once a year. If you have questions between those consultation, you can always call info-santé/info-social to get the needed info.
What to bring before a consultation with a doctor?
You succeed in getting an appointment with a doctor for a consultation. Better be well prepared and have in hands the necessary so everything can go smoothly. Here is a guide to help you to be organize and to maximize your consultation time.
Manage the waiting time
Even if you have booked an appointment with a doctor, whatever if he’s practicing in a clinic or in a hospital, you will almost certainly have to wait. The first thing you should bring is something to keep you busy in the waiting room. A good book is often good company in those times and it’s easy to carry. If you are with a child or a baby, do not forget diapers, milk or snacks and one or two games.
Items to bring
Besides taking a book with you to the consultation, there’s several objects your doctor or his desk would need. In the case where your appointment is at a hospital, bring your establishment card so they can retrieve your file. If you do not already have one, at your venue the admission will surely produce you one.
To be able to help you well, your doctor needs to know as much as possible your habits and your medical history to date. The clearer the better, so you should have with you an update list of your medication. You can get that from your pharmacist. It will give a more complete view of your situation for the consultation.
If you have one, your vaccination booklet can be useful. It is particularly practical for people that get vaccines regularly, like big travelers. The vaccination booklet records a list of vaccines you have got, but also have the dates. Those info makes the needed subsequent vaccines easier to detect.
The most important item you should carry with you for your appointment is, obviously, your Health Insurance Card! It is the first thing they will ask you to give when you get to your appointment. That card is the one giving you a free access to health services.
In recapitulation, for your consultation, you will need something to keep you busy, your hospital card if needed, a to date list of your medication, your vaccination booklet and, above all, your Health Insurance Card.
How to get an appointment when the secretary says there’s no more place?
Clinic or E.R.
Before going to the emergency, you called a clinic to make an appointment quickly. This is what it’s told to do when you’re not in a critical state, right? Unfortunately, the secretary tells you there’s no place for you. What should you do?
It is better to give a call to your family doctor’s office to be sure you’re going to have an appointment. However, it is possible that they’ll give you a distant availability. Besides, it is not rare that the nearest appointment free proposed by the secretary is in couple of weeks. That situation causes a long wait that can be uncomfortable when one is in pain or trap with limiting symptoms.
Adress the doctor
You have access, in Doctr’s app, to a list of public and private’s clinics. Depending on your localisation you have the nearest services with their info’s. That allows you to register into a walk-in clinic if your looking for a quick way to get a consultation.
Another way of getting an appointment with a doctor is to talk with the secretary. Doctors have the duty of giving medical help to whoever needs an urgent attention and whom address to him. Thus, you can leave a message to the secretary for the doctor. In that message, you can describe your symptoms and leave your contact info asking a call back.
The doctor who is going to take the message, especially if your health state has any potentially dangerous symptoms, will free a space to receive you. He could also make a colleague see you promptly.
This trick is not an infallible way to pass in front of people who have a more pressing and real need to consult. It is, nevertheless, a way to have access to a doctor when we seriously need it. You should still favorized the list of health services provide in Doctr’s app to always be equipped.
How to get a place at a without appointment clinic?
When you need one, get an appointment in a clinic, either you are registered in it or not, is complex. It is mostly when you’re not comfortable with the tips and tricks available. To help you with that matter, here are the steps and the information one would need to get a place without an appointment.
With a family doctor
First, if you already have a family doctor, contact the clinic or center where he works to see if they can squeeze you in between two rendezvous the same day or the next one. If it isn’t possible, they may give you the opportunity to see another doctor working in the same clinic. For that, your family doctor would have to be part of a Family Medicine Group.
Without a family doctor
In the case you don’t have a family doctor, Doctr’ s app lists the nearest medical resources for you. All of this in your pockets! The app lists resources by field, and provides their contact info. You have access to the resources that accepts without appointment consultations through geolocation or by entering an address.
When it comes to without appointment consultations, clinics have different process from one another. Some asks for people to get on-site early on the same morning they want to see a doctor. Some others inquire a call the night before, or early the morning before opening hours. Not only the process to get a place without appointment is different from one another, but also the time frame available for those consultations. Clinics can limit that time to some days in the week, half-days or certain hours only.
That is why it’s important to contact the clinic you’re seeking a consultation from in advance, so you’ll get the info on which way they operate. Then again, Doctr’s app can be useful, since the process adopted by each clinic of its network is described in the services provided section.
Having to pass a few calls to get a place is expected for without appointment consultations. Be prepared, many requires to be contacted the night before or before opening, and places or limited.
5 errors not to be made at the emergency
A visit at the emergency is often a synonym of stress and frustration. To make it easy for you, we made a list with the errors that’s going to slow you down when you’re sick. We could just stop there, but we’re also giving you a solution per error, because for every problem there’s at least one solution!
1. Go to the E.R.… without a serious medical emergency.
Emergency is the option when your life is in danger, are that you have a serious and urgent medical condition. A large amount of people rushes to the emergency to be classify as non-priority cases. The most effective way to get answers and an evaluation of your symptoms is to call Info-santé at 811.
2. Be unpleasant with the medical team.
A visit at the E.R. is a stressing experiment for the patient. The professionals must work in that environment permanently. They have to deal with all the stress and they live an enormous pression to perform. An aggressive or violent patient slows not only his care, but also the one of the people waiting behind him. It’s more difficult to evaluate and help somebody that isn’t cooperating. Be patient with the medical team!
3. Rush to the emergency for an issue that another service settle.
Certain specialized services aren’t available at the hospital E.R. A broken tooth or a toothache must be settle at a dentist clinic. Psychiatric issues can be followed in one of the specialize emergency working in the field. Doctr’s app actually gives you the occupancy rate of mental health E.R. Those are often less busy then at the hospital. Once more, a call to 811 will prevent you from going to several places for medical care.
4. Expect that immediately after the visit at the E.R. you’ll recover.
The E.R. doctors have the task of eradicate any life-threatening condition. Some situations require an uninterrupted treatment or one over a certain time. In that case, the monitoring will take place in a clinic. It’s a better idea to seek help at a clinic from the beginning to have the care you need. The best solution is to take a rendezvous with your family doctor. If you don’t have one, register to get one thru the family doctor finder.
5. Go to the emergency without checking first the occupancy rate on Doctr’s app.
Instead of going directly to the emergency, use Doctr before to verify the occupancy rate of the nearest hospital. If your life is not in danger, the clinic is a more adequate choice for non-urgent health care. Then again, Doctr have the list of the services near you.