Dr. Beckwith's Guide to Managing Your Doctor

Copyright © 2001 Matthew G. Beckwith, M.D.

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Chapter 1. The Doctor-Patient Relationship
1. The Five Patient Types
2. The Three Doctor Types
3. Matching the Patient to the Doctor
4. The Mismatched Patient and Doctor
• Chapter 2. Lifestyles and Disease
1. Patients Who Don't Want to Take Medicines
2. Doctors As Drug-Pushers
3. Lifestyle Changes for Selected Diseases
4. Good Doctors Get Bad Reputations
5. The Choice: Life Style Changes or Drugs
6. How Unhealthy Lifestyles Lead to Disease
7. Intra-uterine Abuses
8. Dietary Abuses
9. Inadequate Shelter
10. Drugs
11. Overuse/Misuse of the Body
12. Dysfunctional, Learned Behavior Patterns
13. Stress
14. More About Abuses of the Body and Mind
15. Codependence
• Chapter 3. Overview of Doctor Management
1. Why Doctors Need Managing
2. Doctor Management Skills
• Chapter 4. Understanding Illness
1. What causes illness?
2. Antibiotics
3. Aging
4. Idiopathic Diseases
5. Pain
6. What to do when the doctors aren't helping you
• Chapter 5. Understanding Your Medical Conditions
1. Diabetes
2. Hypertension
3. Depression & Anxiety
4. Asthma
5. Allergic Rhinitis
6. Urinary Tract Infections
7. Respiratory Tract Infections
8. Irritable Bowel Syndrome
9. Acid Reflux
10. Abdominal Pain
11. Obesity
12. Cigarette Smoking
13. Urinary Incontinence
14. Back Pain
15. Headaches
16. Erectile Dysfunction
17. Prostate Enlargement
18. Osteoarthritis
19. High Cholesterol
• Chapter 6. How to handle doctor-patient mismatches
1. The maximalist patient seeing the minimalist doctor
2. The minimalist patient seeing the maximalist doctor
• Chapter 7. How to get information from your doctor over the telephone
1. A Tale of Frustration
2. Prescription Refills
3. Test Results
4. Explanations of Medical Conditions
• Chapter 8. How to get treatment from your doctor over the telephone
1. Different patients have different expectations
2. Different doctors have different expectations
3. The Different Kinds of Health Insurance
4. How Capitation Works
5. Should I Phone or Make an Appointment?
6. It's Difficult to Tell Which Problems are Serious
• Chapter 9. How to get referrals to specialists
1. Pressures on the Doctor Not to Refer
2. Implications of Minimizing Referrals
3. Pressure on the Doctor to Refer
4. Dissatisfaction with Specialists
5. What is a Referral Anyway?
6. Action Plan for Requesting Referrals
• Chapter 10. How to have your insurance company pay for everything
1. Insurance is an Agreement
2. Outpatient Care
3. Medications
4. Inpatient Care
5. Emergency Room Visits
• Chapter 11. How to get forms filled out by your doctor
1. Work Notes
2. Disability Forms
3. School Physicals
4. Last-Minute Forms
• Chapter 12. Doctor-Managing Worksheet