Picture this: your elderly parent is taken by ambulance to the emergency room for stroke symptoms. Or perhaps you’re simply accompanying him or her on a doctor visit to a new specialist. Whether an ordinary doctor visit or an emergency, you may be called on to provide health care information.
Knowing the answers to these ten questions can help your parent receive better care. You can also reduce the hassle associated with making a health insurance or Medicare claim. Here’s what you’ll need to know:
- Date of birth – Hospitals and clinics usually ask this when your parent is checked in, since it helps the doctor evaluate your parent. Knowing the date of birth also helps the clinic be sure they have the correct medical record, which can reduce medical mistakes. Note: Try not to get frustrated when you or your parent is repeatedly asked to give date of birth or ID number. It’s not that the nurse or clerk is too lazy to look it up. In order to prevent medical mistakes, hospitals and clinics ask this often as a way of verifying your parent’s identity before doing tests or giving medications.
- Social Security number – You will need this information to access many services.
- Doctors’ names, phone numbers, and addresses – Make a list of your parents’ internist/family practice physician, eye doctor, dentist and other specialists such as cardiologist, so that their physician can be alerted if your parent is hospitalized. Also, your parent’s primary care doctor will want to receive reports of any care given by specialists. Don’t expect the clinic to think of this—it’s best to be proactive.
- Allergies to medicine or latex – Penicillin, iodine, codeine are common allergies. Be sure to let the doctors know about any allergies, so they don’t order a medication that will cause a reaction.
- Copies of the front and back of all insurance cards - Health care providers routinely ask about insurance information when you parent is checked in. If your parent is 65 or older, you will need also a copy of his or her Medicare card. For a summary Medicare’s benefits and answers to the most frequently asked questions, click on Medicare & You. It’s also wise to know where your parents keep health insurance policies in case you need to look up something about their coverage.
- Advance directives –The National Institutes of Health, describes an advance directive as a legal document that allow a person to convey decisions about end-of-life care ahead of time (the use of dialysis and breathing machines, whether to be resuscitated if breathing or heartbeat stops, tube feeding, organ or tissue donation). Encourage your parents to prepare one, and if they have one, all close family members should have a copy.
- List of all medications – Include prescription drugs, over-the-counter drugs such as aspirin, antacids, herbal remedies, nutritional supplements – even daily multi-vitamins. If possible, include the dosage amounts and instructions for taking them (time of day, with food or between meals, etc.). Take this list with you to ALL of your parent’s medical appointments to help avoid dangerous prescription drugs interactions.
- Date and results of recent medical tests – Include lab tests, x-rays, CT scans and MRIs, any surgeries or outpatient procedures.
- Complete health history – What medical conditions run in your family? Were any of your grandparents diabetic? Did any close relatives have heart disease (heart attacks, high blood pressure, stroke, etc.)? Cancer? If possible, be able to list major illnesses and medical conditions for your loved one’s parents, brothers and sisters.
- Pharmacy - Keep the address and phone number of the local and mail order pharmacy your parent usually uses. Be sure to make a note about any discounts your parent has available.
Having this information on hand can relieve stress (yours and you parents’) and enhance their care.
