Medical Documents

I have found that it is easier to write something down and refer back to it than to try to remember it from memory. With that said, I have put together medical documents for each person in my family. Depending upon how often you or your children go to the doctor will determine how big of a folder you will need, and will determine if you will need to have a folder for each person or not. It is probably a good idea to have different folders for each. If I need to take kids to different places for an extended period of time, than their folders can go with them. Also, if I need to take the folder to the doctor's office with me, I don't need to take everyone's. Again, you will need to determine this. Here is some of the information that I keep:

1. Name
2. Date of Birth
3. Blood type
4. Allergies
5. Primary Physician (Name, address & phone number)
6. Current Health Plan (with a copy of the Health I.D. card)
7. A list of a few hospitals that take the current Health Plan
8. A list of Urgent Cares that take the current Health Plan
9. A list of any laboratories that take the current Health Plan
10. A Prescription tracker (name of prescription, date given, reason for taking, dosage, any reactions to the medication)
11. X-Ray list (date, what was done, where it was done)
12. Surgery list (date, what was done, where it was done and who performed the surgery)
13. Illness list (date and what the illness was)
14. Hospitalizations (date and what the illness was)
15. Shot record
16. For an adult, you can keep track of physicals (date and what type of workup)
17. Medical History (interview mom and dad and find out the medical background. Don't forget to indicate how that family member was related to you, ie. grandmother on mother's side, uncle on father's side, etc.)
18. Any research papers (ie. if the doctor gave you info on a urinary tract infection, keep it in the folder.)
19. Specialist list (if you see a lot of specialists, or even just one, keep the address/phone information in the folder.)
20. A picture of the child and current height and weight. In case you need a current photo for emergency purposes, it will always be there. Just remember to update it yearly.

Since I have a special needs child, carrying all this information to every doctor's appointment can be too much. I have put together a summary which we carry around in our cars. This information is on one or two sheets of paper and includes everything a doctor/doctor's office might need to know. This is really handy when seeing a new doctor. We take the summary in and they make a copy.

To go a step further, you could include dental and vision information in each of the folders.