Organize Your Health Care
If I don't keep a list of my medication, I'll forget. My doctor doesn't even remember all of the medicine he's prescribed me and I doubt he looks through that
giant file before he orders a new one.
— Mazaline, 85, retired school teacher
Here are articles from our Prepared Patient feature series about organizing your health care. These articles are based on interviews with experts and people around the country about some of their experiences making appointments, sharing test results between physicians, and keeping records of their encounters with the health care system.

In the right column, Prepared Patient 411 offers online, phone and community resources to assist you. And in Related Research, we share the most current scientific research in brief news stories.

We invite you to share your own experiences organizing your health care. You can post a reply to any of our featured articles, blogs and news stories.

Prepared Patient ® Featured Articles
Your Doctor's Office, Demystified
Long gone are the days when all nurses sported identical uniforms and only physicians wore white coats and scrubs. Today, when visiting your doctor's office, it can be difficult to know with whom you're speaking and what role they play in your health care.

While undergoing an X-ray, Holly Gage, of Bowmansville, Pa., shared details about her medical concerns with the technician and asked questions about the results, only to find out the technician wasn't permitted to answer them. Situations like these are embarrassing because you've opened up, revealing very personal information to the wrong person, and it's not always clear who you're supposed to talk to, Gage says. The tech informed her that only her physician could interpret her images and answer questions about the test results, leaving Gage frustrated, annoyed and wondering: Who's who at the doctor's office?
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The "Handoff": Your Roadmap to a New Doctor's Care
It could be a broken wrist, or a life-altering battle with cancer, but sooner or later most patients run up against the diagnosis that sends them from their primary care doctor's care into the hands of a new physician. In medical circles, this transition is called the "handoff" — a casual name that conceals the complications and risks of this journey.

If you're a hospital patient, you're likely to be seen by multiple doctors and nurses who need to know your exact diagnosis, your litany of medications, and instructions for further care. Many hospitals are now adopting strict, standardized procedures for sharing this critical information among your caregivers. But so far, few such standards exist outside the hospital setting.
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