List the medications you are currently taking? Have you seen a doctor in the past 5 years for something other than routine physicals? Check every ailment/disease below that applies to you.
The other day my wife, wait a minute, this is two consecutive posts that I’ve mentioned her, whose foot am I trying to save here? Anyway, she had to answer similar questions like the ones above on her visit with a new doctor. Along with the uneasiness of visiting a new doctor, comes the tedious task of completing the obligatory new patient health questionnaire. The problem here is this brief, little health assessment by you is one of the most critical pieces of information that you can pass along to a new doctor. A mistake, omission, inaccuracies on this questionnaire can delay treatment, or worst yet, be life threaten. But as you age and/or start to visit physicians more frequently your ability to accurately recall this info is doubtful.
To take control of your health care requires you to keep good records of the medications, diagnosis, results from self-testing (i.e. blood pressure, in my case glucose levels, etc.), and lab test results. Currently, most of us rely on our memory to recall all of this information 15 minutes prior to visiting the doctor. Unfortunately, this could spell disaster in some cases. Think about it, you’re relying on your MEMORY to recall a lifetime worth of info within 15 minutes. Heck, sometimes I can’t remember why I left my upstairs bedroom to go downstairs, so remembering some of this stuff from 5 years ago would be virtually impossible. Since taking control of my health care, I’ve been keeping all of my lab reports & doctor’s invoices in a 3 ring binder. Inside this 3 ring binder is a pocket where I keep my glucose log books. So if I need to fill out one of those health questionnaires I would use my 3 ring notebook, actually I would take it with me on my first visit with a new doctor.
In a nutshell, keep all of your health care information together in one place so it can be easily accessible by you and/or your team members. If you don’t have time to organize it, just keeping it together is a start. Since we are in the digital age, you can even keep this info together electronically, I’ll discuss this in upcoming blog entries.
Like most really brilliant ideas, this one seems simple after you hear it. I just experienced the brain fog you mentioned at a recent doctor’s visit. The question was when was your last tetanus shot? I knew it had been in the last 10 years but couldn’t remember when. Fortunately, I had my palm pilot with me but it took a while to go searching through it. I’m going to start my medical binder today.
Thanks for stopping by. Before you buy the 3 ring binder, stay tuned for some of my upcoming posts on ePHR, electronic personal health record, you may find that more convienent than the 3 ring binder…