PREPPING FOR YOUR FIRST DOCTOR VISIT
By Sanaz Majd, MD
Health plan open enrollment has just wrapped up and, like every year, many people find themselves needing to change primary care doctors. If that includes you, the next step is scheduling an appointment to establish care with a new doctor in the new year. Starting over can feel overwhelming, however, especially if you’ve been with the same doctor for a long time. Leaving a familiar relationship and having to retell your medical story from scratch isn’t easy.
The good news? Meeting a new doctor doesn’t have to be stressful. With a little preparation ahead of time, your first visit can be smooth, productive, and even reassuring. Knowing what your doctor will focus on and what information they’ll be looking for can help you make the most of your appointment.
Below is a guide to what your new doctor will want to know and what you should be ready to share to ensure a seamless transition of care. Grab a blank sheet of paper and start typing or writing out the outline below, including the relevant details for each section. Use bullet points to keep everything clear, organized, and easy to review. Once completed, print it out and bring it with you to your first visit with your new doctor.
Medication List
If you’re taking just one or two medications or you know your medications well, you can simply bring a written list with you to your appointment. Be sure the list includes the full name of each medication exactly as it appears on the bottle, along with the dose and how many times per day you take it.
Including the full name matters more than many people realize. Some medications have similar names, but work differently depending on the formulation. For example, metoprolol succinate is different from metoprolol tartrate—one is long-acting while the other is short-acting. Likewise, bupropion SR and bupropion XL are not interchangeable and are prescribed differently.
If you take several medications—or if remembering names, spelling, or pronunciation is challenging—bringing your actual medication bottles to your first visit is extremely helpful (and often worthwhile for ongoing visits as well). As a physician, I much prefer reviewing the bottles firsthand, especially when meeting a patient for the first time. This allows me to catch potential errors, clarify dosing, and confirm that medications listed in the chart are truly being taken—and taken correctly. It’s not uncommon for discrepancies to exist, and reviewing bottles helps eliminate confusion and misunderstandings.
Lastly, don’t forget to include or bring over-the-counter medications, topical creams, vitamins, supplements, insulin, injectables, and inhalers. These are often overlooked, but they are an important part of your overall treatment plan and medical care.
Chronic Diagnoses List
Most doctors today use electronic health records (EHRs). If your previous doctor offered a patient portal, this step may be very straightforward. Simply log in to your former doctor’s portal and look for your list of medical diagnoses, often labeled as a “problem list” or “past medical history.” Printing this list and bringing it to your first visit can be extremely helpful.
If you don’t have portal access, don’t worry. Just write down the major chronic conditions you’ve been diagnosed with. Your current medications can serve as helpful reminders—“Lisinopril… right, that’s for my high blood pressure,” for example.
Common chronic conditions include:
• Diabetes
• High blood pressure
• High cholesterol
• Heart disease
• Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)
• Asthma
• Hypothyroidism
• Seasonal or environmental allergies
• Rheumatoid arthritis
These are just examples. Focus on ongoing, long-term conditions that require monitoring or treatment. There’s no need to list temporary issues like a brief episode of back pain a couple of years ago or the occasional cold. Your new doctor is primarily interested in your current, chronic health conditions so they can best manage your care moving forward.
Surgeries/Procedure List
You may not remember every medical event in detail; wisdom tooth extractions, for example, aren’t always that memorable. But if you’ve had an organ removed, a joint replaced, or a medical device implanted, those are details your doctor absolutely needs to know.
Think about your body from head to toe and make a list of any surgeries or procedures you’ve had. An exact date isn’t always necessary, especially for procedures done many years ago, but including an approximate year is very helpful.
Below are examples of common surgeries and procedures to include:
• Cholecystectomy (gallbladder removal)
• Appendectomy (appendix removal)
• Tonsillectomy (tonsil removal)
• Hysterectomy (uterus removal; please note whether ovaries and/or cervix were also removed)
• Hernia repair (specify location: groin, belly button, or abdominal wall)
• Knee arthroscopy
• Knee joint replacement
• Rotator cuff repair (shoulder)
• Spinal fusion (cervical, thoracic, or lumbar spine)
• Skin cancer removal (note body location and type of skin cancer)
• Breast lumpectomy (include final diagnosis after biopsy)
• Mastectomy (include final diagnosis after biopsy)
• Breast biopsy (include final diagnosis after biopsy)
• Fracture repairs (specify which bone)
• Cataract surgery
• Pacemakers
Be sure to indicate which side of the body, left or right, was involved for each procedure. These details help your doctor better understand your medical history and safely guide your care.
List of Specialists
Your primary care doctor serves as the central hub for your healthcare. That means they should be kept informed about your overall health, including care you receive from specialists. One of the best ways to ensure everyone stays aligned is to ask your specialist’s office to forward their visit notes to your primary care doctor.
In a perfect world, this would happen automatically, but in reality, it doesn’t always. For that reason, bringing a list of your specialists, along with their names and phone numbers, to your first visit is extremely helpful. This allows your primary care provider to reach out directly when needed and better coordinate your care.
Keeping this information handy at your first visit helps create smoother communication and more comprehensive, connected care for you.
Social History
Most primary care doctors will also review your social history, as it provides important context for your overall health. This typically includes:
• Occupation
• Marital status and number of children
• Tobacco use, including whether you currently smoke or have smoked in the past
• Number of packs per day
• Total number of years smoked
• Year you quit (if applicable)
• Alcohol use, usually measured as the number of servings per week
• Drug use history, which may include marijuana use (not uncommon). A history of intravenous drug use and/or substance dependence or addiction is especially important to share, as it can significantly impact medical care and decision-making.
Providing this information honestly helps your doctor better assess health risks, recommend appropriate screenings, and deliver safer, more personalized care.
Family History
Write down each of your first-degree relatives and any medical conditions they have been diagnosed with. A first-degree family history is the most important to share and includes parents, siblings, and children. While conditions affecting cousins, aunts, and uncles can sometimes provide helpful background, they are not considered as strong or direct a medical link.
When gathering information from your family members, focus on chronic and hereditary conditions, such as:
• Diabetes
• High blood pressure (hypertension)
• High cholesterol
• Heart disease
• Heart attacks
• Stroke
• Cancer
Sharing an accurate family health history helps your doctor better assess inherited risks, recommend appropriate screenings, and tailor preventive care to you.
Allergy List
It’s important to share any prior reactions you’ve had to medications or foods with your doctor. Be sure to include what the reaction was, not just the name of the medication or food.
Many reactions are actually intolerances rather than true allergies, such as nausea, diarrhea, or abdominal discomfort. These should still be listed, as they help guide future treatment decisions.
True allergic reactions may include:
• Rash or hives
• Lip or facial swelling
• Throat swelling or difficulty breathing
If you’ve ever experienced a severe allergic reaction, such as anaphylaxis or angioedema, be sure to note this and indicate whether you carry an EpiPen.
It’s also helpful to describe how severe the reaction was. For example, mild diarrhea after taking an antibiotic may not prevent you from using it again. In contrast, developing C. difficile colitis—a potentially serious infection causing severe diarrhea—would make your doctor much more cautious about prescribing that medication in the future.
Important Studies
You do not need to transfer hundreds or thousands of pages of old medical records when establishing care with a new doctor. In many cases, that’s unnecessary and inefficient. For most patients, providing copies of the following is sufficient:
• Most recent colonoscopy, including any pathology reports and recommended follow-up interval
• Last Pap smear
• Last mammogram
• Last DEXA (bone density scan)
• Any prior CT scans or MRIs
• Recent laboratory results (within the past year, if available)
Some patient portals will allow you access to the above; you can simply print and bring to your visit if so. Older lab work and extensive records are often not needed initially. Your doctor’s office can always request additional records later if they become relevant.
Other Clinical Information
When establishing care with a new primary care doctor, expect some additional intake information and paperwork:
• Intake forms: These may be electronic or paper. Calling the office ahead of time to ask if you can complete them in advance can save time and allow you to fill them out at your own pace.
• Insurance card: Some offices may request insurance information ahead of time, but it’s always wise to bring your card to every visit.
• Pharmacy information: Be prepared to provide the name, address, and phone number of your preferred pharmacy.
In Summary
Many medical offices that use electronic health records with patient portals offer a summary section that includes some—but not all—of the information above. This may be labeled “Synopsis,” “Face Sheet,” “Patient Summary,” or something similar. Accessing your portal and printing this information can save you some time and effort.
If portal access isn’t available, consider keeping an up-to-date written or typed list for your own records. This can be invaluable not only for your first visit with a new primary care doctor, but also for future specialist visits and for your own personal health reference.
Now that you know what your doctor will be looking for at your first appointment, you’ll be well prepared. Be sure to schedule your initial visit specifically to establish care, as there’s often a lot of important information to review. Allowing adequate time ensures your doctor can be thorough and thoughtful when getting to know your health history.
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Sanaz Majd, MD, is a practicing, board-certified physician and host of the @MajdMD YouTube channel, reviewing the most popular medical topics.
