Your health information

Get started by providing your care team with the most important information first.

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All about you

When meeting with your healthcare provider, you'll want to provide information about yourself and your health. This starts with your:

  • Name and pronouns
  • Address
  • Phone number and email address
  • Health insurance information (if available)

Lets talk about it

Next, you will want to provide information that makes it easier for you and your care team to communicate. This includes:

Family history

  • This can get extensive quickly. It’s best to focus on immediate family first, such as parents and siblings, then grandparents, aunts, and/or uncles. You do not need every health detail, but major health impacts such as cancer, diabetes, blood disorders, kidney failure, etc. will be important.

Emergency plan and contact

  • Let your healthcare team know who they should contact in case of an emergency. Share your relationship with the person and their best contact. Additionally, let your care team should know if there are any emergency symptoms they should be aware of in your health history. For example, seizures or anaphylaxis shock.

Most of the time this information will be requested by paper at your first appointment. If you need assistance with completing these documents/forms, you can always ask your care team for help. If enough space is not provided on the form, simply note on the form that you would like to review this in person. And if you would like more time completing the form, feel free to show up early or ask for the form in advanced.

When first meeting with a new care team, it is good idea to ask that you review the form together. This allows you both to ensure that you understand what was completed and that the information is correctly filled out.

Give the details

Last, you should be prepared to provide your full medical history and information. It is helpful to keep this in an accessible area, like your note app on your phone. You will want to provide:

  • Dietary needs
  • Allergies, including food, medicines, animals, environment, etc.
  • Mobility needs, like braces, wheelchair, and/or prosthetics
  • Medication(s)
  • Equipment/technology needs, such as insulin pumps or service animals
  • Personal health history, such as hospitalizations, surgeries, lab/radiology tests, etc.
  • General health standing, for example, do you consider yourself in good or poor health?
  • Family history
    • This can get extensive quickly. It’s best to focus on immediate family first (such as parents and siblings) and then grandparents, aunts, and/or uncles. You do not need every health detail, but major health impacts such as cancer, diabetes, blood disorders, kidney failure, etc. will be important.
  • Vaccine history
    • When starting with a new clinic or provider, they may ask for a physical copy of your vaccine history. If you are unable to obtain this, be sure to provide as much information as you can.
  • Dental history, including major surgeries or implants
  • Emergency plan
    • In addition to your emergency contact, let your healthcare team know if there are emergency symptoms they should be aware of with your health history. For example, seizures or anaphylaxis shock.

 

Most of time all this information will be requested by paper at your appointment. If you need assistance with completing the documents, you can always ask your healthcare team for help. If enough space is not provided on the form, simply note on the form that you would like to review this in person with your provider. And if you would like more time completing the form, feel free to show up early or ask for the form in advanced.

When first meeting with a new provider, it is good idea to ask that you two review the form together. This allows you both to ensure that you understand what was completed and that the information is correctly filled out.

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