Number 289 - June 2007

Summary of Medical Condition
By Don Singleton, APCUG President
I started to maintain a document with information that I pass on to any new health care professional (doctor, dentist, home health nurse, EMSA (ambulance ) technician, etc.) that I deal with. Many of them have expressed great pleasure in having concise documents with all of the information that they would need to know to treat me, and how they wish all of their patients did the same thing. So I thought that I would mention my Summary of Medical Condition http://reports.apcug.org/2007q2/Redacted_Medical_Condition.pdf and suggest that every one at least maintain a document showing every medication they regularly take (including over-the-counter medications ), everything (drug, food or other) they are allergic to, a list of all surgeries they have had, with the dates in case the doctor wants to check something in your hospital record, and the phone number and address of each of your doctors.	In my case I go an additional step further. Every time I am discharged from the hospital I request a copy of my chart for that hospitalization. They are required by HIPP A to provide it. They can charge you a reasonable copy fee, but it should not cost any more than $100. And then I go through that chart page by page, learning exactly what is going on with me. Google has a special page call Google Health www.google.com/Top/Health/ that is pretty good, but while http://64.233.167.99/ is a very cryptic URL, it is even better for explaining all of those big medical terms. If you look up a disease it will ask you if you want information for health professionals, information from medical authorities, or information about alternative medicine. By using those links I have been able to learn a LOT about be (my?) various ailments, and I include information both from my chart (particularly discharge summaries and lab results) and from pages I find on Google in my Summary of Medical Condition.    Reprinted with permission of the author.
Number 289 - June 2007