When people are applying for jobs, they develop a résumé. This document has all the important details regarding their work history, education, etc. Patients need a résumé too! However, patient résumés are different. Employment résumés are created to get great jobs; medical résumés are created to acquire great healthcare experiences.

In early 2007, my mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease. My mother also had many other medical issues, including diabetes, hypertension, colon cancer and atrial fibrillation. My mother was on many medications and saw many different doctors from various health systems. It was challenging managing my mother’s care, until I developed two pieces of paper that changed everything! I created the “medical résumé.”

According to the Joint Commission, the organization that accredits healthcare organizations, the biggest cause of medical errors is botched handoffs. A handoff is a transition of care, such as going from a hospital to a rehab center. Patients could play a vital role in ensuring safe handoffs via the medical résumé. My mother experienced many handoffs, and I was able to avert many errors through the medical résumé. After my mother was handed off, I would always review my mother’s pertinent medical history and provide a copy of her medical résumé. I lost track of how many times I heard this statement, “This is a life-saving tool. I wish all patients had a medical résumé!” Healthcare organizations have volumes of information on each patient. The medical résumé helps them quickly see all the most important details.

Develop your medical résumé in the form of an electronic file. This can be accomplished easily via a word processing system. The information can be simply updated at any time. Always keep in mind the golden rule of electronic files, have a backup copy!

Below are some suggested items to include in your medical résumé. A medical résumé looks exactly like an employment résumé! I developed the look of my medical résumé based on the appearance of my business résumé. Have major headings with bullet points; just like this article! You want to make it very easy for professionals to quickly and accurately review your information. It may seem like a challenge to include all this information on just two pages. However, you’ll be very surprised as to how much information you can pack into two pages!

Contact Information

At the top of your medical résumé, include the following information:

• Full name, address, city/state/zip, landline/cell phone numbers and email address
• Personal data including date of birth, social security number and any patient identification numbers from your medical centers

Insurance Information

Include company names, phone numbers and account numbers.

Allergies

Since allergies could be life threatening, it is important that they be listed early on in your medical résumé. I am allergic to sulfa drugs and scan dyes. I used to just mention these two items; however I found healthcare professionals wanted details. They would often ask what kind of reaction I had – a slight rash or a serious reaction that resulted in a hospitalization? I now include brief but significant details about my reactions and you should too.

Medications 

List all the medications you are taking. Do not assume that all healthcare professionals are familiar with your medications and their uses. In addition to pills, also include inhalers, injectable therapies, drops, and ointments. For each medication, include the following:

• Medication name (be specific, don’t simply say “high blood pressure pill”)
• Purpose of medication (for example, “used to treat Type II Diabetes”)
• Dosage
• Frequency (e.g., number of times taken per day)
• Pharmacy contact information

Illnesses and Surgeries

This is a place to list significant illnesses and surgeries. You do not need to include every cold you had in your life! For each major illness or surgery, include the following:

• Type of issue (e.g., knee replacement surgery, prostate cancer)
• Date of issue (include month and year)
• Treatments (e.g., surgery, radiation, specific chemo drugs, etc.)
• Current status (mention if you are in active treatment or when treatment was completed)

Physicians

For each of your current physicians, list the following:

• Full name (do not just say “Dr. Smith”)
• Area of medicine (e.g., internist, oncologist, etc.)
• Location / hospital affiliation
• Phone number

Emergency Contacts

Include the person’s name, relationship and mobile phone number.

In addition to the personal medical résumé consider developing a family medical history document. Our family developed this type of document, which proved very useful when seeing a new healthcare professional. Also, if appropriate, have an electronic copy of Power of Attorney documents. My brother and & I were my mother’s Power of Attorney. We had an electronic file of this document and could easily print when it was requested.

Medical résumés get the job done!