Organize Your Medical Records

Keep your and your family members medical records in good order, up-to-date and readily accessible. When organized you will be able to spot trends in your health that help in your decision making. And, in case of emergency, your records could save your life.

The more scattered your records, the higher your risk of glitches and errors, such as drug interactions. The more doctors you see, the more medical files you may have.

Records are mostly paper, but electronic records are on their way. Right now, there is no one format that all doctors use, but there is a guide to various formats at www.myphr.com. Although electronic records are coming, you have paper from this year and the past which must be kept in good order.

Basic Components of a Personal Health History Include:

• Personal identification
• Emergency contacts, including all contact information
• List of all doctors, your dentist and other health professionals, including contact information
• List of current medications and dosages
• Health Insurance Information
• List of significant illnesses, surgeries and hospitalizations with dates
• Immunizations and dates
• Allergies and sensitivities: drugs, foods and environment
• Test results, including eye and dental records
• Family Health History
• Related Correspondence, if any

Steps:

1. Choose a bright color just for medical records so the folders are easy to spot. If there are other people in your household, use a different color for each person, indicating their name boldly on the first folder.
2. Keep “Medical” in the front of your filing cabinet for easy access for filing and in case of emergency. Dedicate an entire drawer, if necessary and label it “Medical” in case others need access.
3. Separate medical history from current medical data for each person. Keep the current information (current year) in front, history in the back.
4. Organize information in a way that makes sense to you, based on your/your family members conditions, and clearly label folders.
5. Create a folder for your primary care physician and keep in it notes or articles on issues you want to discuss with her/him. Take it with you to your appointments.
6. At each doctor visit, request a copy of your test results. File them promptly.
7. Create folders for your chronic conditions, such as allergies, asthma, diabetes, etc so you can keep all related tests, diagnoses and correspondence together. Otherwise, file test results and correspondence in reverse chronological order, with the latest tests and information in front.
8. Major Surgery? Create a folder for each surgery, labeling by type of surgery and year. Keep related papers in each folder and file in reverse chronological order.
9. File health information separate from medical history. If you collect information on issues, such as back exercises, create a separate folder and keep it behind the records and documents you keep on your own medical health.
10. When the current year is over, move non-chronic records into the history part of your medical system.

My Filing 101 book contains a section on organizing important documents of all kinds. Go to http://www.beyondclutter.com/books/filing-101/ to purchase your own copy.