Doctor appointment checklist for the day before

The day before a doctor visit, write your reason for going and your concerns in order, list every medicine and supplement, note what has changed with dates, and put photo ID, your insurance card and the list in one bag. In the room, start with the concern you most want answered. Afterward, write down what was decided.

This is for adults and for parents booking for a child. It can't tell you what to ask about your own health, and it isn't medical advice. Your clinic's own instructions come first.

Example: one page for a cough visit

Say it is Tuesday night and the appointment is Wednesday at 9:15. You know you'll walk in with five worries and walk out having said two. The table below is the page you'd want in your hand, filled in for an invented eight-year-old. Every detail is made up.

A filled prep page (example, invented child)

Nothing on this page is an answer. It's the facts a doctor asks for and the questions you'd otherwise lose in the waiting room.

Before, during and after

The order follows the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality's advice to prepare questions, ask the most important ones first, understand the answers and know the next steps.

1. The night before

   Write the reason, then your questions in order. Write what has changed, with dates.

2. Same evening

   List every medicine, vitamin and supplement from the labels. Put the bottles in the bag.

3. Morning of

   Add photo ID and your insurance card. If someone is coming with you, tell them the top question.

4. At check-in

   Tell the desk or the nurse you have questions, so the time can be planned around them.

5. In the room

   Start with your most important question. Take notes, or let the person with you take them.

6. Before you leave

   Say the plan back in your own words. Ask for written instructions if there are any.

7. That evening

   Write down what was said and decided while you still remember it.

What to gather, in order

1. One line for the reason you're going. If a symptom brought you, write when it started, how long it lasts, how bad it is and what helped. Symptom notes for a doctor visit has the four-line format.
2. Your questions, one per line, the most important first. AHRQ's advice is to ask those first. The Institute for Healthcare Improvement's Ask Me 3 offers a fallback set for any visit: what is my main problem, what do I need to do, and why is it important for me to do this.
3. Every medicine, including over-the-counter ones and supplements, from the labels: name, dose, how often. See the medication list guide. Bring the bottles too, or a list.
4. Allergies with the reaction, and anything that changed since the last visit, with dates.
5. Photo ID and your insurance card. If you can, write down the pharmacy's name and phone as well.
6. Room for notes. Leave at least five blank lines under the questions.
7. Someone to come with you, if you can. AHRQ suggests taking notes or bringing a person to help you understand and remember what you heard.

Adjust it for the kind of visit

For a child, you're the one who asks and remembers, so write the questions in your own words and bring what the child takes and is allergic to. For a video visit, do the same preparation: the list, the bottles and the notes are still in reach, only the waiting room changes. For a first visit with someone new, what to bring to a new doctor adds history and records. For an elderly parent, add whatever their clinic needs before it talks to you, and see caring for a parent and kids.

What can go wrong

Too many worries for one visit is the common one. You can't fix that with a longer list. Put the most important first, tell the desk you have questions when you check in, and if you still run out of time, ask when the best time is to ask the rest, as AHRQ suggests, or whether a follow-up visit or call would be the right place.

Guesses are another. If you think you know what's wrong, we'd write it under the facts and mark it as your guess. Doctors decide what it is, and your guess can be useful to them, but it shouldn't replace what happened and when.

And the list can be out of date. A medicine list right in March is a guess in September. Check it against the bottles the night before.

Questions people ask

Where the Family Health Binder fits

In Family Health Binder, you can plan a visit with a reason, a day and who it's with, write your questions one per line, and add what was said afterward. Its Visit page prints those questions with tick boxes, plus allergies, what is taken now, the latest five symptom notes, and five ruled lines for notes from the visit. It doesn't print insurance, which lives on the separate Forms sheet. It only holds what you type, and it doesn't remind, schedule or book anything. You can mark a record private so it stays off the printed page, and the page counts what it left off. For the questions page itself, see questions to bring to the doctor.