Medical Preparedness · Household Profile
Every diagnosis, medication, device, insurance card, provider, and legal document — in one place, in writing, accessible to anyone who helps your household in a crisis.
Planning guidance, not medical advice. Build this profile with your providers — not instead of them.
Planning guidance, not medical advice
This page helps you document your household's existing medical information — it does not provide clinical instruction, dosage guidance, or treatment recommendations. Consult your doctor, pharmacist, or specialist about your specific medications, conditions, and devices before making any changes to your medical routine or supply.
What this guide covers
You know your own medications. The household medical profile exists for the scenarios where you can't speak for yourself — an evacuation where a stranger is helping, a hospitalization where family members need to coordinate, a caregiver absence where someone else steps in.
The document's value is measured by what it gives the people who don't know you. Can a paramedic see your allergies at a glance? Can a neighbor helping during an evacuation find your insulin? Can your adult child 600 miles away know what your father takes and who his cardiologist is?
That framing — "write this for someone who doesn't know you" — shapes every section of the profile. Include what they'd need to know, in language they can read without medical training.
Ready.gov recommends documenting:
Medical needs, prescriptions, and equipment as part of every household emergency plan1
Disability and access needs, including powered equipment and mobility requirements2
Medical alert tags, device information, and medication lists as part of the household go-bag2
Three scenarios where this document matters
Emergency response
A paramedic arrives and you or a household member cannot communicate clearly. Your medication list, allergy sheet, and medical history — in one readable document — allows accurate care without guesswork. Post a copy on the refrigerator if anyone in the household has conditions that require this level of immediacy.
Evacuation and displacement
A mandatory evacuation with 30 minutes' notice. You grab the go-bag. The profile is already in it. At the shelter, medical staff can review your household's needs. At a pharmacy in an unfamiliar city, the medication list supports an emergency refill request. Research on disaster preparedness for people with chronic conditions identifies medication documentation as one of the most critical continuity factors.3
Remote caregiver coordination
An adult child 400 miles away needs to coordinate care for an aging parent during a crisis. The profile tells them exactly what medications their parent takes, who the prescribing doctor is, which pharmacy is preferred, and what the insurance card says. It turns a panicked phone tree into a coordinated response.
1 Ready.gov. "Make a Plan." Ready.gov/plan. 2 Ready.gov. "People with Disabilities." Ready.gov/people-disabilities. 3 Rao et al. "Emergency and disaster preparedness for chronically ill patients." PMC 4753992.
Building the profile
Work through these in order. Gather your source materials first — medication bottles, insurance cards, and provider contact information — so the profile can be built in one sitting rather than pieced together over several sessions.
Before you start: Pull out every prescription bottle in the household, current insurance cards, and a list of active providers. Your pharmacist can print a complete medication list from their records — calling ahead to request it can save the most time-consuming part of this process.
The identifying facts that allow any caregiver to match the profile to the correct person and understand their baseline health status.
Notes
Blood type is optional here — it is on the profile in case the person knows it, but absence does not undermine the profile. Do not delay building the profile to locate blood type information.
The conditions that shape every medical decision made by anyone providing care. Write in plain language — not medical shorthand — so it is readable to a non-specialist.
Notes
Use plain language. "High blood pressure" is clearer than "hypertension" for a non-medical reader. Both are acceptable — but clarity for a non-specialist is the goal. Allergies are the most critical section for emergency care; list them first on the printed page.
The most time-consuming section to build and the most valuable in a crisis. Include every prescription and regular OTC medication. Your pharmacist can print a complete list from their records — ask for it before starting this section.
Shortcut
Call your pharmacy and ask for a printed medication history. Most pharmacies will print the last 12 months of fills including drug name, dose, frequency, prescriber, and fill dates. Use it as your starting point and verify it is current.
Include regular OTC medications
Daily aspirin, OTC antihistamines, fish oil, melatonin, and other regular supplements count. A care provider needs the complete picture. "Regular OTC" means something taken on a routine schedule, not "as needed."
Any powered device required for health, mobility, or daily function. The wattage and daily hours entries feed directly into backup power planning — they are the starting point for sizing a battery or generator.
Notes
If you are unsure of a device's wattage, look at the label on the power cord or on the back of the device — it is printed there as a regulatory requirement. Alternatively, check the manufacturer's website or user manual. Confirm your specific device's requirements before using generic figures.
See also: Medical Devices and Power Outages for backup power planning by device type.
The contacts that anyone helping your household will need to reach — for care, for authorization, and for coordination. Include the phone numbers you'd want someone to have if you couldn't look them up yourself.
Notes
List a backup pharmacy in a different chain than your primary (e.g., if your primary is a grocery store pharmacy, list a national chain as backup). During disasters, pharmacies close — having an alternate already identified removes one problem from an emergency situation.
This section only applies if there are medically required dietary restrictions or mobility/communication needs. Leave it blank if neither applies — do not list preferences or lifestyle choices here, only medical requirements.
Notes
The mobility and communication notes in this section are specifically for emergency responders and shelter staff. They are brief — one sentence each. The detailed planning for mobility and access during evacuations is in the Disability and Access Needs section.
Do not reproduce legal documents in the profile. Record where each one is stored and who it names. This section tells a caregiver where to find the document, not what it says.
Notes
If no legal documents exist yet, note that in this section — "advance directive: not yet created." This is a prompt, not a gap that prevents the profile from being useful. The profile works with or without these documents; noting their absence makes them more likely to be addressed.
A profile built once and never updated is out of date within months. Set a review schedule now. Store copies where the people who need them can access them — including people who are not in the same building.
Review triggers
Update the profile immediately after any of these:
New prescription added or discontinued
New diagnosis
Insurance or provider change
Emergency contact change
New household member or caregiver
Review regardless of changes: every six months. Set a calendar reminder.
The downloadable worksheet
The Household Medical Information Worksheet follows the same eight-section structure as this guide. One page per household member, designed to be printed, filled by hand, and stored in a waterproof pouch.
What the worksheet contains
Identification and blood type fields
Diagnosis and allergy table (with reaction type column)
Medication table: brand, generic, dose, frequency, prescriber, pharmacy, storage
Medical devices table with wattage and backup hours
Insurance, provider, and emergency contact fields
Legal document location checklist
Last-reviewed date and review reminder
Who to contact
Your pharmacist
Ask for a printed medication history — most pharmacies can print the last 12 months of fills. This is the fastest way to populate Section 3 accurately. Also ask about their emergency refill protocol for your state.
Your primary care physician
Ask about the practice's protocol for emergency prescribing during declared disasters. Mention the profile you're building — some practices have patient emergency planning resources or can flag your record for disaster-preparedness programs.
Your local emergency management office
Many counties maintain a voluntary registry of residents with medical needs — particularly for power-dependent equipment and mobility limitations. Registering ensures you are included in evacuation assistance planning. Find your county office at Ready.gov.
Your utility company
If any household member uses power-dependent medical equipment, ask about the utility's medical baseline or life support program. Many utilities maintain priority restoration lists for households with documented medical needs. This is handled separately from the profile but should be done at the same time.
Next steps from the profile
Prescription Preparedness
Emergency refill protocols and building a 30-day buffer.
Medical Devices and Power
Backup power planning using the wattage from your profile.
Emergency Medical Documents
How to build the grab-and-go medical folder that holds your profile.
Medical Go-Bag
Where the profile goes and what surrounds it in the go-bag.
"An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."
Benjamin Franklin
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