Being a Smart Patient By: Dr. Oz

• Ask people to wash their hands before touching you.
• Keep hand sanitizer by your bed.
• Try to avoid bacteria-promoting items, like flowers and jewelry.
• Ask doctors to clean their stethoscopes. “Did you ever think where the stethoscope was before he examined you?” Dr. Oz says. “It was on someone else’s chest, and that same bacteria gets carried to you.”
• Clean television remotes.
• Ask a doctor to remove his tie, or else tuck it into his shirt. “How many men here have ever washed their tie?” Dr. Oz says. “Nobody. No one washes a tie. Doctors don’t either.”

To Find a Great Doctor, Ask an ER Nurse
Grill the ER nurse-manager at the best local hospital. A nurse in the intensive-care unit is also a good choice. These registered nurses get a battlefield view of doctors at their best and worst.

Go Board-Certified The American Board of Medical Specialties recognizes 24 areas of medical specialty, including anesthesiology, cardiology, internal medicine and pediatrics. Search for board-certified physicians at ABMS.org. To find the best hospital for you—whether it’s a small community hospital, a hospital in your rural area or a large teaching hospital—go for an accredited hospital listed on the Joint Commission’s Quality Check website at JCAHO.org. Joint Commission accreditation is the Gold Seal of Approval for a hospital—and that’s what you want. The Joint Commission also evaluates ambulatory clinics, home health agencies, home medical equipment companies, nursing homes, laboratories, behavioral healthcare facilities and more.

Know Your Hospital’s Numbers
Practice makes perfect. Research has shown that for several common operations, hospitals that perform a specific number or more of that operation every year have better success rates. Your surgeon should be able to give you this info, as should the hospital’s information line.

Have the Surgeon Draw a Picture
Surgery performed on the wrong limb? Or wrong person? Absurd! Unbelievable! Except it really does happen. You know that. You see it in the news more frequently than anyone would like. The Joint Commission requires the surgeon to literally mark the site of your surgery (for example, left elbow, right side of abdomen, wherever appropriate) before the operation. And the docs and nurses will triple-check your identity to make sure that you’re the right patient before they even lift a scalpel.

Get Thee to a Hospital
How are you feeling? Fine? Never better? You need to find a hospital. The perfect time to scout for the best hospital is when you don’t need one. Most people don’t give it a thought until a paramedic is looking them in the eye and asking, “Do you have a preference of which hospital you want to go to?”

Insist on Being Scanned
In the hospital, have staff check your hospital ID bracelet before they give you any medication, take blood or wheel you off for a test. If your hospital uses bar code scanners on ID bracelets, insist they scan you every time.

How Healthy Is Your Health Insurance?
Many of us have few options in picking health insurance, because we’re tied to the plan from our jobs. But when you are lucky enough to have choices, here are some important questions to ask:

• How does the insurer rate with the National Committee on Quality Assurance? Find out at NCQA.org. Also, the National Association of Insurance Commissioners lets you check out individual companies at NAIC.org.
• Which hospitals and doctors are in the plan’s network? Are the hospitals Joint Commission–accredited? If your doctor isn’t in the network, ask your company’s HR department to twist the insurer’s arm to add him or her.
• What will happen if I get cancer, get pregnant or become disabled? These are the biggies that really test insurance.
• What’s the maximum lifetime benefit? It should be at least $5 million.
• At what age will my children be cut off from the plan?