The 4 questions to ask when diagnosed by your doctor

Have you had a long talk with a family doctor recently? If you have, chances are it was on an airplane or at a cocktail party — anywhere but the exam room. The drive-by office visit has become the norm in many clinics. Doctors rush from one appointment to the next, keeping one eye on a patient's chart and the other on the clock. It's not necessarily their fault. Whether your doctor has ordered a test, is giving you a diagnosis, or prescribing a treatment, here are four key questions you should always ask to ensure you are receiving the best treatment possible.

Primary care doctors are unlike auto mechanics and plumbers in one key respect: they get paid per appointment, not for how much time they spend with a patient. Some general practitioners have publicly complained that insurers require them to spend no more than seven minutes with a patient on average.

• There is evidence that when doctors rush, good medicine suffers. For example, a 2006 study found that gastroenterologists in one practice who spent more than six minutes performing the critical withdrawal phase of a colonoscopy detected polyps (potentially cancerous growths) in 28 percent of patients.
• Doctors who spent less than six minutes withdrawing the scope detected polyps in just 12 percent of patients.
• Even more worrisome: the go-go doctors who raced through colonoscopies detected full-blown colon cancer less than half as often as their more methodical colleagues.

• What will this test tell you?
• How is it performed? Is it painful?
• How accurate is it?
• How will the results be used?

• What is the technical name of this disease?
• What is my outlook?
• What can I expect to happen?
• What treatment do you recommend?

• What are the risks and benefits?
• How effective is it?
• How long before we know whether it's working?
• What other options do I have?

If you feel your doctor is rushing through your office visits, "find another doctor" says Arthur Levin, MPH, director of the Center for Medical Consumers, a nonprofit advocacy organization based in New York. "There are practices out there that are organized very efficiently," he says, allowing doctors to take more time with patients and still turn a profit. Don't be afraid to take your time asking the important questions.