Do you know why medical exams often need to be cancelled at the last minute? Patients don’t read the instructions received in advance.
When the appointment is set up, the patient got written instructions covering items like “don’t eat or drink after midnight”. On arrival, when asked, the patient says things like “All I had was an apple” or “just a small glass of milk.” Even when the instructions include boxes, bold letters, and underlining to emphasize the fasting requirements, the problems persist.
My solution is to put the fasting instructions in the main headline: “Don’t eat or drink for six hours before your appointment, or the examination will have to be rescheduled.” Things that matter most should come first.
I described these exam-prep failures to a friend who had a medical appointment coming up. He knew enough to avoid eating and drinking during the time specified. However, the exam still had to be cancelled: his morning gum-chewing caused the problem.
How could we rewrite the notice to eliminate so simple an error? “Don’t put anything in your mouth for six hours before the exam”?