Image courtesy: Diane Miller
It can be easy to lose track of vitamins, medications, previous surgeries and current health complaints of an individual. Remembering dates and ages in the doctor's room or under strain in the ER can leave room for errors.
Keeping track of pertinent medical information in a health journal helps to streamline annual visits to the doctor and makes sure the patient is getting the most out of his or her appointment.
Creating a Basic Health Journal
The basic outline of a health journal should have these components:
- Current medications, herbal supplements, vitamins - include details as to frequency and dosage, the prescribor, and why they are being taken.
- Hospitalizations - a record of all hospitalizations for this person, include the date of admittance and date of discharge.
- Allergies - medications, foods, latex, include all known allergies.
- Illnesses and injuries - both current and past, include dates whenever possible.
- Surgeries - past, recent and pending surgeries, include dates for all procedures.
Download a Health Journal Form to Complete at Home
Want to create a thorough health journal? Joint Commission Resources has provided a Your Health Journal: Keeping Track of Your Health document that is easy to fill out and is very thorough. Click here to access a download page to get this journal in ADOBE PDF format.
Capturing Family Medical History with the Surgeon General's Software
My Family Health Portrait is an online software tool from the U.S. Surgeon General. It is setup so that an individual can enter his personal health history, create a family tree back to his grandparents and then share this information with his doctor and relatives. The software is HIPAA compliant and none of the information is stored or saved online - it is all saved to the user's computer or storage device (CD-R, zip drive, floppy disk). Visit the website now by clicking here.
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