Portable Health Summary
The portable medical summary is an important component of transition care. For youth with special health care needs, the portable medical summary is an important summary of the patient’s medical problems which can be accessed in the ER or by new physicians as the patient transitions to adult providers. Typically portable medical summaries include the following:
- patient name, contact information, emergency contact
- a list of all of the patient’s current medical problems
- a past medical history, with list of surgeries and their dates
- current medications
- allergies
- any subspecialists/specialists recent notes/recommendations
- pertinent labs, xrays, studies
- immunization record
- durable medical equipment list
- prognosis/future plans for medical problems
- consent forms, if applicable
There are multiple different forms of portable medical summaries. Some are kept electronically, others on paper. The most important aspect is that the medical summary travel with the patient and be easily accessible. Below is a link a portable medical summary created for use at UCMC, although there are many different options for portable medical summaries and the one that best fits the patient’s needs should be chosen.
- link to our portable Portable Medical Document