Organize Your Health Care

Making Doctor's Appointments

To become familiar with a new doctor or practice group, ask for the information in the list below. You may be able to get some of it from your insurance physician directory, your new doctor's receptionist or the practice's website. It may take several efforts to get all the information you need, but it will pay off when you need it most. Keep this information handy with your personal health records or household files.

1. Office contact information: Obtain phone and fax numbers, office hours, web address, e-mail policy and hours of operation.
2. Office location: Get the address and find directions by car or public transit. Find out about parking options, including whether and how much you have to pay to park.
3. Making appointments: What are the hours to call for appointments? Are there no-show policies? Can they provide estimates of waiting times (both for an appointment and when waiting to see the doctor after arriving)?
4. Medical record: Ask about any instructions for bringing a summary of your medical history, current health status and recent test results or if referral documentation is needed (especially important for specialists and testing).
5. Special needs: Inquire if and how the provider can accommodate any unique or special needs (such as physical navigation, hearing or visual impairments, translation services, etc.) and how to arrange for assistance if needed.
6. Payment: Inquire about the health insurance documentation and/or payment process required for receiving care. Get the contact information for staff administrator or the billing manager.
7. Tests and test results: Request a description of what types of tests are commonly conducted in the practice and what tests will need to be done by an external provider (with names and contact numbers for commonly used laboratories and radiology facilities). Find out the practice policy about patient notification of test results.
8. After-hours and emergency care: Inquire about when to seek, who to call and where to go for after-hours and emergency care.
9. Prescriptions: Obtain instructions for securing prescription refills, reporting adverse side effects and decisions to discontinue medication or change any agreed-upon treatment plans.
10. Care companion: Notify your physician group if you would like to bring a companion along with you to visits.

Sharing medical information with multiple doctors

Perhaps one of the most surprising things that many people learn is that when they have several doctors, the burden of sharing up-to-date care information really falls on patients and caregivers. Most care is provided by separate, independent practices who are unlikely to communicate with each other unless you facilitate discussions. (This may not be true if you participate in an HMO like Kaiser Permanente.) It is likely that you will need to make sure that records of tests, procedures and hospitalizations are provided to each of your physicians. This may mean getting extra copies and hand carrying them to appointments. This means that you should always update each doctor about new medications that may have been prescribed by someone else or test results that they may not be aware of. Keeping a personal health record (PHR) may make this easier for you.

Keeping a Personal Health Record (PHR)

Wondering what a personal health record is? Medicare has an overview available: www.medicare.gov/PHR/Overview.asp

FamilyDoctor.org from the American Academy of Family Physicians provides information about how to create a health journal as a way to document your health. http://www.familydoctor.org/online/famdocen/home/pat-advocacy/healthcare/838.html

The American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) is a national not-for-profit professional organization that also provides information on how to create a personal health record. http://www.myphr.com/

The Mayo Clinic has basic information on creating a personal health record: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/personal-health-record/MY00665.

Mayo has also partnered with familiar IT giant Microsoft on a PHR called Mayo Clinic Health Manager: https://healthmanager.mayoclinic.com/default.aspx

Mayo Clinic also offers helpful information on gathering information for a family medical history at: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/medical-history/HQ01707. This may be useful as part of a PHR for yourself or to share with other family members.

Microsoft also has created its own PHR called HealthVault. HealthVault is a free service for managing personal health information. Users can enter prescriptions they are taking, allergy information, family and personal medical history, information about current health conditions and summaries of medical visits including any test results. These records are intended to be secure places for people to collect information that can be shared across different providers when they choose. http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/healthvault/

HealthVault's primary competitor, Google Health, is shutting down at the end of 2011. Users will be able to download their data through 2012.

MyMedicationList is an application developed at the National Library of Medicine that helps users manage their medication lists and make the records readily available when needed. http://mml.nlm.nih.gov/

Managing your Medical Record

The Health Information Portability Accountability Act (HIPAA) is a law that was passed in 1996 to protect patients' health information. Patients or their guardians are allowed access to health records. Laws vary from state to state about how long it may take to receive your record and what it may cost. It is best to contact the facility where you received your care to learn about their policies for obtaining your medical records.

A non-profit organization, Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, has collected detailed information on accessing your medical record. https://www.privacyrights.org/fs/fs8-med.htm

About.com has a helpful article about how to obtain your medical record. http://patients.about.com/od/yourmedicalrecords/a/getmedrecords.htm

Medicare.gov also provides information about personal health records and answers common questions. http://www.medicare.gov/navigation/manage-your-health/personal-health-records/learn-more-phr.aspx.

Updated August 19, 2011