Stop Ending Your Clinical Appointments With 'Do You Have Any Questions?'

If you work in clinical healthcare and speak English as an additional language, there is a good chance you end most of your appointments with some version of this question: 'Do you have any questions?'

It feels like good practice. If you are a student of motivational interviewing, it serves as an open question. It gives the patient a chance to speak before you close. Almost every healthcare professional uses it, and it also almost never works.

Why It Fails

There are three reasons 'Do you have any questions?' consistently produces a no, even when the patient genuinely has questions.

First, it is a closed question. In English, closed questions invite one-word answers. The default answer to 'Do you have any questions?' is no, regardless of whether that is true.

Second, it places the entire burden on the patient. To say yes, they have to recognize they have a question, decide it’s worth asking, find the words to ask it clearly, and be willing to extend an appointment they can sense is already ending. For a patient who just received complex health information, that is a lot to ask in a single moment.

Third, it assumes the patient knows what they don’t know. A patient who has not understood the key points of your consultation may not realize they haven’t understood them. 'Do you have any questions?' cannot identify what the patient does not yet know they are missing.

Three Alternatives That Work Better

Each of these questions does something the original does not: it anticipates that there is something worth saying, and it makes saying it easier.

1.  "What questions does that raise for you?"

The word 'what' anticipates questions exist. The patient is not deciding whether to have questions, just which ones to ask. This small shift in phrasing reliably produces more responses than the original.

2.  "What stands out to you from what we discussed today?"

This question does not ask about questions at all. Instead, it asks the patient to reflect on the conversation. It helps identify what stayed with them, what confused them, and what they are still thinking about, without requiring them to frame any of it as a formal question.

3.  "What is still feeling unclear or uncertain for you?"

This one normalizes not understanding. It removes the social risk of admitting confusion and signals that uncertainty is a reasonable and expected response to clinical information, which it often is.

None of these require more time than the question they replace. They require only a small adjustment in phrasing and a genuine willingness to hear the answer.

Want More of This?

This is one concept from my new course: Motivational Interviewing in English for International Healthcare Professionals — a practical six-module course covering the specific English language skills that make MI possible in real clinical interactions. It includes a downloadable reference card toolkit you can keep at your desk. Register at www.absolutelyenglish.com/courses.