An emergency medical binder is a physical binder that consolidates a patient’s medical records, prescriptions, contact information, and other important healthcare information. It is a valuable, time-saving, and even life-saving resource that both families and concierge nurses should keep in the home for each patient. In this resource, I’ll explain why having an emergency medical binder is important, outline what you should keep in your binder, and provide you with a free download to help you get started.

Why is an Emergency Medical Binder Important?

Between various hospitals, doctor’s offices, and outpatient care facilities, your patient’s or loved one’s medical records are siloed across many different systems that don’t necessarily talk to each other. What happens if your patient needs to see a physical therapist, but for some reason their doctor hasn’t forwarded their medical records yet? Or what if you don’t have the most recent list of your grandmother’s medications when you have to take them to an emergency care center?

The very first thing I do when working with a new patient is track down, print out, and consolidate all of their medical records and contact information into a single binder. This way I can avoid any confusion, delays, or even potentially dangerous situations when collaborating with different family members or healthcare professionals. The binder is an important resource that can be used in case of an emergency and also as the primary record when going to a medical appointment or the hospital. Having an emergency medical binder enables both you and your patient’s healthcare team to quickly and safely make important medical decisions.

What Should be in Your Binder?

Below is a list of what I commonly keep in each of my patient’s emergency healthcare binders. Please note that you should always update the binder after each medical appointment and/or with a change in medication and/or treatment plan.

Emergency Medical Form (download a free PDF copy below!)
Current list of medications, including prescriber
Emergency contacts, including current providers and pharmacies
If applicable, durable POA and POLST/MOLST (power of attorney and physical/medical orders of life-sustaining treatment)
Recent lab and/or diagnostic test results
Baseline lab and/or diagnostics
Calendar of upcoming medical appointments
Recent “after visit” summaries from medical appointments
Recent discharge summary from recent hospitalization and/or surgery

Ready to get started on your own Emergency Medical Binder? Download this free template!