I try to preempt the frustration by saying that we each take our own history for the purpose of making sure no details are missed, but rest assured, I’ve gotten the overview from your other docs. I then make sure to complete a sentence for them once in a while, to evidence that that is the case.
A good percentage still get frustrated. Can’t be helped. Patients reshape their narrative, remember new details, just plain open up more to some docs, etc. the repeated history taking really pays off in improving patient care.
Where I find patients get most frustrated is when docs come in for a specific job, and patients don’t have the health literacy to understand what that is or is not. “Doc, can I go home today?”
“ I’m just the consulting cardio here to check out your heart for your primary doc, Doc McStuffins, I have no say in that at all, you need to ask McStuffins.”
There’s no good response to that. No one wants to cough up cash to pay for health professionals time to repeat themselves all day long. But the patient that’s asking? They want that answer. They don’t -feel- like they’re asking an inappropriate or stupid question.