Last week’s column pointed out that it’s hard to be effective as a health care representative or family member of someone in the hospital if you have trouble finding out even who is in charge of the patient’s care.

Dozens or hundreds of other questions may also go unanswered – some, not because no answers are available, but simply because it gets exhausting to have to try to figure out who to ask and how to track them down.

If you are unnerved by not knowing what is going to happen when, consider making a list in a notebook of questions such as those below.  Whenever a doctor or anyone from the hospital comes into the room, ask them any of the questions that you think they may be able to address, and write down the answers.  Before long, most of your questions will probably be answered.

• How many times a day will the lab come to draw blood, and roughly when do they come?
• When are meals served? (Today, hospital food services often operate like room service, so read the menu/brochure.)
• How many times a day will someone come to check vital signs (blood pressure, heart rate, temperature, and blood oxygen level)?Roughly when do they come?
• Will the patient be given a sponge bath and have sheets and gowns changed regularly? How often?  Roughly what time of day?
• What times are medicines scheduled to be given, if they are supposed to be given on a regular schedule rather than on an “as needed” basis? (For example, in some hospitals, many patients get heparin injections every eight hours, to help prevent blood clots.)
• When does the patient’s surgeon normally check in on patients?
• When is the hospitalist expected?
• What appointments does the patient have today, for tests or therapies? When are these scheduled?  Will they take place in the room, or will the patient be transported somewhere else?
• How fast should we expect someone to respond to a call for an issue that isn’t life threatening but that needs attention?How fast when IV pump alarms or other alarms go off?
• What’s the real story on visiting hours?(Often, family can visit up to 24 hours a day – unless doctors or nurses feel that their presence harms the patient.)
• How often do those curtains between the beds get washed, anyway? (in small rooms housing two patients, clean hands may not be so clean once their owners get done pushing the privacy curtains out of the way to get to the side of the bed.)

Getting answers to questions like these can help both the patient and family members feel more in control and decrease the stress and anxiety that so often arise from uncertainty.