Medical Emergency Shows the Importance of Having an Organized System for Medical Information

When it comes to your medical bills and records, you are probably like 90% of the population. You get an explanation of benefits (EOB) for a recent doctor's visit and it goes in one of two places. The EOB gets shredded or perhaps, you keep it and throw it in a drawer.

Then what happens when you receive a bill from the doctor's office stating that your insurance denied the charge and you owe the entire amount. A frantic search ensues to find the Dr. appointment receipt and EOB so you can resolve the error.

Like most households, each month you receive a variety of documents having to do with your health status. From referrals, explanation of benefits to treatment instructions, the piles of medical papers add up. Multiply this by the number of family members in your household, and you can see how disorganized medical records can be a never-ending problem and a cause of great stress in the event of an emergency.

The solution is a system for managing and storing your most important medical records kept in easy access. Without one, chances are you'll never find the paper you need when you need it. You can design your own system of organizing all the paper associated with your medical records and treatments with various filing supplies. Or you can use a ready-made system with labeled categories that hold everything in one organized place. This saves you from having to reinvent the wheel, especially in an emergency.

I learned this first hand in 2008 when my mother suffered a stroke and heart attack! I needed to be able to immediately put my hands on her medical records, which included all medications she was taking. My mother didn't have any system in place that I could refer to, and due to her stroke, she wasn't able to communicate to me where I could find all of that information. As a boomer (and also a single parent of two children), and the only child living close to my mother, it was my role to coordinate everything related to her sudden illness ~ from Dr. appointments, multiple medications, referrals, tests, treatment, rehab. therapy, diagnoses, and more. The amount of new information that was coming at me daily was difficult to wrap your arms around. If you've ever experienced a sudden or serious illness with a child, parent or yourself, you know what I'm talking about.

I found a ready-made system that had a place to hold everything we needed to record and track her care, a place to hold business cards, appointment cards and a notepad for noting doctor's comments. It was a life-saver during my mother's health crisis and treatment.

For the next six months during my mother's slow recovery, her Medical Organizer became the "go-to" place for all of the medical information we needed at our fingertips on a daily basis. The Medical Organizer went with us to every therapy, doctor's appointment and test. I felt in control again and felt gratified that I was able to provide the support my mother needed.

As my mother continued to recover and her memory became more reliable to her, having this ready-made system was a God-send for her to track the history from the date of her stroke. She felt in control by having all of her medical history at her fingertips as she continued her therapy throughout this past year. The moral of the story is to be proactive now for the inevitiable emergency. It will be critically important to be organized and in control during a situation that is really out of your control. Be sure to also communicate to loved ones where your system is kept. Having an organized system at my fingertips helped me feel in control, so I could be there fully for my mother's needs.

In case you're wondering ... by the grace of God, my mother has returned to 95% of her old life, feeling a renewed sense of gratitude and appreciation for life. As am I and all those who love her.