Questions Are Good for Comprehensive Care – Ask and Answer Them

We are huge proponents of comprehensive care here at KindlyMD. We also believe in Complete Care, but that is a different topic for another post. Yet one of the keys to making complete and comprehensive care work for both providers and patients is asking and answering questions.

We love lots of questions in the clinical setting. Why? Because we are ultimately after answers. Yet it is impossible to find answers if you don't first ask the questions. So we say this to patients: ask every question that comes to mind about your health and wellbeing. And when a healthcare provider asks questions of you, answer them truthfully and as thoroughly as you can.

A Word About Comprehensive Care

Before we go any further with the question-and-answer idea, a word about comprehensive care is an order. Comprehensive care is an approach to care rather than a specific modality. It is an approach that seeks to address a patient's total health at multiple levels: physical, emotional, psychological, and social.

A healthcare provider offering comprehensive care emphasizes:

• A Full Range of Services – Comprehensive care providers believe in taking advantage of as many services as possible. The services are coordinated with various providers and designed to meet all a patient's healthcare needs.

• Whole-Person Care – Comprehensive care recognizes the need to care for the whole person represented by a patient. That means addressing the physical, emotional, and social aspects of the person's wellbeing.

• Continuum of Care – Comprehensive care also seeks to provide a continuum of care from the very first visit until end-of-life. All the care provided is offered in an appropriate setting.

If we had to sum all of this up in a single sentence, we would say that comprehensive care pulls out all the stops to treat a patient as a whole person rather than just a body that is not feeling well.

Why Doctors Ask So Many Questions

Doctors and advanced practice nurses are known for asking a lot of questions regardless of the setting in which they practice. But if you have experienced our comprehensive care, you know that our team tends to ask more questions. Why? The best way to explain it is to use the example of treating persistent pain.

There is no diagnostic test for identifying and measuring pain. A healthcare provider needs to rely on interactions with the patient to figure things out. So the provider asks questions. In addition to direct answers, the provider is also paying attention to tone of voice, body language, and other factors that all work together to tell them how a patient is truly feeling. If we do not ask questions, we will never know.

Questions are our door into the emotional, psychological, and social aspects of how you feel. When we lack the ability to conduct diagnostic tests, questions also offer a window into your physical experience.

Why You Should Ask Just as Many Questions

In comprehensive care, we want patients to ask questions, too. That means you. We want you to know as much about your health as possible. We want you to understand why you feel the way you do, why we think certain treatments could help, and so on. And if you are ever concerned about the care you receive, we want you to feel free to express those concerns.

Questions represent your opportunity to participate in your care. We want that for you. In fact, this is why we practice comprehensive care. We believe it is the best way to treat a patient's whole person for better health overall.