Recently as I’ve been busy keeping up with eye tests and new glasses for all five children and myself, immunization injections for us all, blood tests for my daughter and I to monitor our iron levels, hospital admissions for myself, dental treatment for us all and visits to the orthodontist for the eldest two children, managing our health insurance, and arranging veterinary care for the pets, it’s become clear that I really need to make sure all the records and papers relating to all this are kept in order so I can keep up with what’s going on.
When visiting a doctor, dentist, specialist, optometrist etc, of course they keep records of the reason for your visit, diagnosis, test results, treatments and so on. But I do think it’s a good idea to also keep a basic record of these things ourselves.
Over the years we’ve moved house quite a few times, and even within the same area sometimes attended different doctors because the preferred one was not available at the time or didn’t bulk bill. This means our records can be spread over a number of different places.
It’s usually not until you find yourself filling in a form asking about your medical history that you realize you can’t quite remember exactly what year you had that surgery, or some of the details of it.
It’s worth keeping a medical folder for each family member, including pets. The things to keep in this folder are:
-Optical prescriptions, in date order.
-Record of all vaccinations or immunizations and the date given. This is especially important for your children.
-Your own copy of any test results.
-X-rays, CT scans etc, or if they don’t fit, a note stating where in the house they are located. Locate all X-rays in the same place in the house, and separated into folders for family members and clearly labeled with date taken and what they were for.
-Your own copy of referral letters between doctors. If they are sealed, there is no reason you shouldn’t open them and read and scan them, or even just ask your doctor to print you a copy for yourself. These can help you remember the reason a particular course of treatment was begun.
-Explanatory information handouts relating to a medical condition.
-Receipts for payment of medical bills.
-Records of Medicare (Australia) and health insurance claims.
-Your own written record of events, including dates, what you were told by the doctor, even how your recovery went and how you felt.
-Your own record of significant family illnesses such as chicken pox, influenza, ear infections, broken bones.
-Your own record of general health issues like weight variations, rashes, levels of depression or anxiety, fitness, allergies.
If the amount of papers for these things becomes too much for one folder, put them in separate folders, for example one for optical, one for dental, one for hospital expenses, one for test results. An alternate way to file them would be to keep all notes, receipts, bills, letters and test results grouped together for each separate condition being treated.
The reasons for keeping these records are:
-So you have a record of any medical expenses claimable on your safety net a the end of the financial year (This is in Australia)
-So you can find films quickly and easily when you need to show them to a doctor.
-So you can easily find out when you or your family are due for your dental checkup, eye test, health check, follow up or immunization.
-So you can give an accurate medical history to your doctor when they ask for it in preparation for surgery or treatment, or to help with a diagnosis.
-So you are aware of what is going on with your treatment in case you find you are not happy with how you have been treated, or just so that you have an awareness of what is going on with your own health.
-So you can easily answer your children’s questions when they want to know, for example, did they ever have chicken pox, when was their last tetanus booster, do they have a history of allergies or excema.
As with any documents, you have the option of storing them digitally, by scanning them and filing them on your computer. This can be very useful, or it can take up more time than just filing things in your filing cabinet. If you have some items on your computer, and some in the filing cabinet, you can leave notes for yourself about the location of the other relevant documents.
Now, having done all that, we don’t want to be rummaging through our files every time we’re wondering whether something is due. We should already know that by using our calendar system.
Say for example you have just had an eye test.
-You get the optometrist to give you your own hard copy of the prescription. This allows you to shop around wherever you like for the best glasses or contact lenses. When you make your purchase, let them copy it, and you keep and file the original, giving you a record of when your eyes were tested and what the prescription actually was (so that you can be aware of any changes yourself, if for example you went to a different optometrist next time).
-You keep a copy of your health insurance claim, so that you can see how much limit you have left to claim for that year, and how much your health insurance is likely to pay for that item next time.
-You write in your diary when you are due for another eye test. If it’s not until the next calendar year, you write it on your forward planning calendar. This is a calendar, often in the back of your diary, with just the months listed for the following year, where you can write things like “eye test due” or “car service due”.
If you’ve had any surgeries, you can make a record of these on your computer, creating a history you can print out and take with you when you need to give a medical history.
Like any other files, these need to be cleared out periodically. A good way to get rid of a big pile of paper is to scan anything you want to keep onto the computer, and make a written or typed summary of any key points from that event.
If you have health insurance, it’s a good idea to spend a few hours on the phone once every year or two, and do some comparison shopping to see if you’re still getting the best deal. Watch out for exclusions, excesses and co-payments. We choose to have a lower premium and have excess and co-payment because we’re all still pretty healthy, and can change this in the future as I get older and start falling apart more.
It’s good to be able to confidently answer your children’s questions about their medical history, to be able to find referral letters, pathology forms, prescriptions and X-rays easily when you need them, not have to wonder when you are due to see the doctor, dentist or optometrist, because it’s already on your calendar.
Just one more organizing project which can reduce your stress and make your life go more smoothly. It’s great to feel you’ve got all your family’s health stuff up to date and under control, and increased awareness of what’s going on makes it easier for you to take an interest in what your options are and what choices you have available to you.
