How to Organize Your Health Data
Our family consists of five people: two adults and three kids. I’m also a caregiver. I hold the power of attorney and medical power of attorney for my mother who is living with dementia. Combined, we have enough providers and appointments that our family needs a system for keeping all the information organized and accessible. I wanted to share how I organize our health data to normalize the complexity of managing multiple moving parts and to show one way that it can be achieved. Use my approach as guideline to organize your own health data.
Why I’ve Taken This Approach
One of my core values is simplicity. Simplicity is more aligned with ease than it is with easy. Therefore, I’m willing to spend time and energy up front to set up a system that creates ease in the future. You may find the same is true for you.
For our family’s health data, I want to be able to:
Always have easy access to the information / data I need when I need it – from anywhere
Always have our next appointments booked
Have a central place to put questions, concerns, and statistics so it’s not cluttering my brain
I define health data as all things related to the health of our family. This includes:
providers
insurance + health savings accounts
billing + receipts
appointments
prescriptions
results, immunizations, scripts, etc.
Where Our Data Lives
Our data “lives” in five key places. To align with the value of simplicity, I ensure that the information is synced between my desktop computer and mobile device. A few essentials are shared amongst all family members.
Contact Cards: I pull the generated business contact card for providers + pharmacy and save their address, phone/fax number, and email to my personal address book. I share these contact cards with our family.
Email: I’ve created a “Health Care” folder within my personal Gmail account. I have sub-folders for each year for simplicity (ie: “2022 Health Care”). I save copies for any electronic invoices, receipts, or results within this folder. I delete appointment emails.
Websites: I bookmark relevant websites within a “Health Care” folder on my browser. I have sub-folders for the following categories:
Electronic medical records
Insurance + health savings
Providers
Pharmacy
I’ve bookmarked these websites “just in case” I need them. Some websites have login portals, and by bookmarking the site, I can also save the login information.
Desktop File Folder: I’ve created a “Health Care” folder on my desktop for longer term electronic storage of documents. This folder is synced to the cloud so that I can access the information anywhere. I have sub-folder for our scanned insurance, vision, and dental cards. This folder is shared with our family. I have a second sub-folder for scanned results, images, and scripts. I have a third sub-folder for scanned payment invoices and payment receipts.
Note: I use both a desktop scanner and an app to scan documents. Find and fall in love with the method that suits you best.
Trello: I have a Board within Trello for our family’s health information. It operates as my notepad so that I don’t have to remember all the details associated with any particular provider or visit. Find an information system that makes sense to your brain. On my “Health Care” Board, I’ve created one List per family member: myself, my kids, and my mom. (My husband can manage himself.)
Each List is titled by the family member. Each provider has his / her own Card. This Card includes:
appointment dates + reminder notifications
links to websites
PDFs of immunizations, scripts, etc
visit statistics + relevant notes
questions for doctor
I invite you to consider whether a similar approach makes sense for you. Work one category at a time. Remind yourself that once the system is created, you’ll save time and energy by always having what you need at your fingertips. There’s no rush to build the system all at once, and you can add to it as you encounter a provider or interact with your insurance carrier.
My Process
When I encounter a new provider, I create a contact card, bookmark their website, and create a Trello card.
When I make a new appointment, I enter in my calendar, add the date to the provider’s Trello card with reminder notification about 2 weeks before. This reminds me to look at the card and calendar, decide whether I need to reschedule the appointment, complete intake paperwork, and encourages me to think of questions in advance of the visit. I make our next appointment (or series of appointments) at the end of our current appointment, and give myself permission to change it in the future.
When I have a new concern or question, I add the concern to the provider’s Trello card and make an appointment if needed.
When I receive a new result or script, I keep it in the electronic medical record unless needed. I use my pharmacy’s app to fill and refill prescriptions.
When I receive a new bill, I scan and upload the electronic copy to my desktop folder. Then, I pay the bill online or manually, noting the source of payment. Finally, I reconcile the payments online once per month through our insurance and/or health savings account.
I understand that we each have different comfort levels around data and privacy. Please use my system as a guideline for creating your own within your comfort level of data privacy.
If you found this helpful, book a consult so you can organize multiple areas of your life with ease.
Can’t wait to connect with you!
