To ease the stress of caregiving, it helps to have a system to organize the information you receive so you can access it quickly when you need it. Develop a system that works for you. Here’s how I organized the mounds of paperwork:
A big 3-ring binder that I carried to medical visits included:
- Doctors’ and nurses’ contact information (I put their business cards in a plastic binder with slots made for 20 cards per page.)
- Questions to ask doctors (with room for their answers)
- List of current medications and supplements (including chemo) with dosage and dates medications were started and stopped
- List of contraindications to current medications
- Medical history
- Treatment summary—date, doctor/facility, procedure/surgery, diagnosis, medication prescribed and dosage (You may download my sample spreadsheet.)
- Procedure instructions for CT scan, MRI, PET scan, etc.
- Treatment options for the future
- A list of providers I had researched that were in our insurance network just in case we needed them:
- Durable Medical Equipment (oxygen, walker, wheelchair, etc.)
- Skilled Nursing
- Hospice
- Contact information for people who offered to help and what they offered to help with (You may download my sample spreadsheet.)
- Account numbers and information to pay bills online if you get stuck out of town at a hospital
- Journal (loose notebook paper) to log health problems, symptoms, improvements, weight, oxygen, heart rate, blood pressure, and anything else worth noting.
For out-of-town medical visits, a folder in a backpack that I carried included:
- Hotel information in the nearby area of treatment
- Maps of the city
- Maps of the facility where the treatment was received
- Restaurant information
A filing cabinet at home included separate folders with paperwork filed chronologically within each folder:
- Lab results
- Pathology reports
- Patient reports from doctors
- Radiology reports and CDs
- Medication information, filed alphabetically (instructions and list of possible side effects)
- Pamphlets on the treatment received, filed alphabetically
- Nutritionist’s information
- Explanation of Benefits (EOBs)
- Medical appointment schedules (I occasionally had to refer back to see what test/appointment occurred when.)