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I'm taking care of my mother, but I'm having trouble coordinating the different appointments and communicating all the updates with my siblings.

Anybody out there with a similar situation? I'm wondering what your strategy is to deal with this.

Thank you.

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Great question iwillsurvive9. I will be following this one as I have struggled mightily with it.

It's so time consuming to update multiple family members with separate emails and phone calls. Especially if decisions need to be made that way. Conference calls are hard to schedule. If ALL family members were receptive, I think a Google "Site" would be a great way to communicate and let everyone share the "to do's". Essentially, it's a free private website where you can post updates, maintain a shared calendar that can push updates to any member's own calendar, post important documents, etc.

That said, it wouldn't work for my family :-( If I might vent a little... both of my parents see several doctors and have used in home care. One of my siblings is very detail oriented and email works well for us. The other lives closest to my parents and ends up managing most of the emergencies but is not detail oriented at all and doesn't like email. He loses track of details from phone conversations and doesn't follow through. When we follow up, he gets defensive saying if he thinks it's important, he'll get to it when he can. Managing the logistics of my parents care and keeping us in the loop is negatively impacting his home life and health so I have tried to handle all the coordination of doctors and home care between emergencies. When the sibling near my parents doesn't agree with something we suggest he just takes over and disregards other input. He wants the help but only if its done his way. My parents see the problems but won't ask one of us to take the lead. Can anyone relate?
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Coordinating care for an elder with multiple physicians can be very challenging, especially if you have limited time and/or do not have a medical background to help you out. If you are having difficulty with doing this on your own, you may want to see if there are private patient advocates in your area that can help you out with this issue. There is a list of them at:

http://www.nahac.memberlodge.com/directory.

I recently wrote an article that discusses the role of private patient advocates in the health care system. You may want to read about it as well.

Best wishes,
Vik Rajan, M.D.
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I am a social worker and have the same experiences with my own family as we are all trying to help take care of grandma by ensuring she is taking her meds, we are getting her to all her doctors appointments, etc. Between all of us, it is very hard to keep track of all the information, messages from the offices, and coordinate with one another. I eventually became the "bookkeeper" and started typing everything from everyone into emails... yet, I know email is not secure and now my grandma's information is being passed via the internet. Ugh. So, I decided to get together with a technology company who focuses on healthcare products, and began consulting for them to create a way for families to access a secure software for only their loved ones where not only the family members can log in and enter and see information, but the doctors, home care providers, or anyone they want to have access could record/document notes and information so everyone can be on the same page at all times, no matter if its family across the country or physicians in various offices... they all have one central location to store and share information. I can help connect you to the company, it's called FieldSync and get you set up with an account for free to try it our with your family. Hope this helps!
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