Dr. Bergwerk uses UpToDate to prepare her patient for referral to a sleep medicine specialist
“I used to carry a prescription pad in my pocket, now I have the UpToDate patient education pad. It is very nice to be able to write something out on that piece of paper and say 'Why don't you look this up.'”
Sally Bergwerk, MD is an internist in a solo practice in Wilton, CT and has been an UpToDate subscriber since 2001. She has recently started using UpToDate's patient education pads to prescribe information to her patients.
Dr Bergwerk's office has switched over to 100% e-prescribing. "There's no paper whatsoever and while that is advantageous to the patient, something is lost when you don't write something out in front of the patient and hand it to them," said Dr. Bergwerk. "I used to carry a prescription pad in my pocket; now I have the UpToDate patient education pad. It is very nice to be able to write something out on that piece of paper and say 'Why don't you look this up.'"
For example, Dr. Bergwerk recently saw a patient that she suspected had sleep apnea. She used the pad to refer the patient to www.uptodate.com/patients so he could make himself familiar with the way the condition is evaluated and the treatment options. "That way the patient could prepare himself for referral to a specialist and ask intelligent questions," said Dr. Bergwerk.
"I tell my patients that just because you can read something on a website, you can't always count on it to be true," said Dr Bergwerk. "It's very difficult to evaluate medical information. It's very nice to be able to direct them to information that has been vetted and also information that I can agree with."
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