Are you helping an elderly relative manage his or her medical care? Can you quickly and easily get your hands on your own key medical information: immunizations, surgeries, medications being taken, any allergies to medications, doctors, blood type, etc.?
Trust me: This is important. You don't want to be sitting in a hospital emergency room filling in an admitting form for your sick relative and trying to remember what surgeries she had; was it the right or left hip that got replaced? What's that medication that triggered a bad reaction a year ago?
You certainly don't need a special product to manage this information. My brother and I kept track of my mother's information in simple text documents and spreadsheets that we e-mailed back and forth, and printed off as necessary.
But for some people a special product is helpful - so here are some options.
Paper-Based Products
The HandiRecords Classic gives you a nice compact form for tracking medications, surgeries and other procedures, test results, contacts - and more. Ann Blanchard, who created HandiRecords, is offering readers of this blog a $2 off coupon; use code I17MGS on checkout.
The Jakoter Health Organizer comes in a 3-ring binder.
The So Tell Me... Medical Organizers come in five different editions (including a senior one with bigger print) and three different binders.
On-Line Options
Online health records are a Big Thing now; there's Microsoft's HealthVault and Google Health (shown above), and also options like VitalChart [via Web Worker Daily]. Update on Feb. 15, 2013: Google Health has been discontinued. I'm getting a warning message when I begin to go to the VitalChart website, so I've removed the link to that site.
USB Drives
You can also use a number of different products to store your medical history on a USB drive. ICE Packet is one such option - it has an application to create your medical history stored on the drive, and the software is both Mac and PC compatible.
Jakoter has its own Health Tag and also offers the MedicTag (which requires Windows XP or Vista). Other options include the Medistick, which is multilingual. A simple Google search will show you many other options.
Fabulous post!!! Since my mom passed away suddenly last year, I have been taking care of my grandmother and all of her health issues. Now I have a few places to look for resources.
ReplyDeleteThanks!! :)
Another option is Identimed. I love the pockets to display each pill preseciption you are taking. How often do you hear of someone saying to the nurse "that isn't my pill" and the patient is ignored.
ReplyDeleteAlana, I'm so glad you found this helpful. Best wishes to you - losing your mom is a hard thing - and to your grandmother.
ReplyDeleteKrista, thanks very much for pointing me to IdentiMed.
I read with great interest your blog about electronic medical records. MyMedicalRecords.com (MMR) is an advanced patient health record and an Integrated Service Provider on Google Health. We do think there are a number of advantages to having an online record.
ReplyDeleteUsing MMR, complete patient records can be easily faxed, voiced, or uploaded into a password-secured, web-based account. An emergency log-in feature also allows access to your critical medical information in the event of an emergency, and it has a drug interaction database for prescriptions, as well as many other features.
Perhaps you and your readers would like to test drive MMR by signing up for 30 days free using the promotion code TRYMMR.
Scott Smith
MyMedicalRecords.com
ssmith2@mmrmail.com
10100 Santa Monica Blvd #430
Los Angeles CA 90069
888-808-4667 ext. 123
Scott, thank you for pointing me to another option worth consideration - and thank you for the free trial offer!
ReplyDeleteSome caregivers may want the flexibility of using a printed journal or journal forms in MS Word files that can be maintained on a home computer and then printed.
ReplyDeleteMyFastTrack Organizer gives you this choice and includes an attractive, zippered binder with many extras.
There are no refills to purchase for the printed version (you can downloads PDFs) and no time limitation on software downloads.
You can customize the forms to fit your family's needs.
The journal also includes something almost no other health organizers on the market offer: the ability to record key details about home and finances, in case another family member needs this information in a crisis.
Please watch our 3-min video about the product (and read our testimonials) at:
www.MyFastTrackOrganizer.com
Kim Land
www.MyFastTrackOrganizer.com
Support@MyFastTrackOrganizer.com