How to Keep Personal Medical Records
Because of legal and privacy issues, obtaining copies of your medical files can be complicated. Therefore, it is a good idea to keep your complete medical history. Generally, maintaining files is an easy task, but medical records can be extensive so it is important to have a well organized system.
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Things You'll Need
- 3-ring binders
- Tabbed dividers
- Plastic page protectors
- Paper
- Hanging files
- Folders
- File cabinet
Instructions
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How to Keep Personal Medical Records
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The first step in keeping personal medical records is to sort through your current records. Create piles to divide the records by year. Keep the past year and the current year in separate piles. All previous years place into storage boxes.
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Next, take the past year and current year and create hanging files for these years. Then, create subfiles from the manilla folders for the records. Break the subjects down into relevant subjects, such as prescriptions, doctors notes, receipts, surgeries, test results, xray films or images, business cards and any other topics which are relevant. Place all of these into the hanging files and place into a file cabinet.
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For the current month, take a three ring binder and insert divider tabs and plastic page inserts. Review all current paperwork and divide it according to its subject matter into the plastic binder. This binder can be taken with you to all appointments and can be updated whenever you need to do so. Moreover, on a monthly basis, remove the documents and file them into the respective file folders you have already made in the hanging files contained in the file cabinet.
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Tips & Warnings
You may want to include a business card page in the front of your binder for easy reference to physicians and/or other health care professionals.
