Medical Preparedness · Household Medical Profile
The Household Medical Profile: where medical preparedness starts.
One written record per person, holding the health details a stranger would need to help. Every other guide in this section builds on it.
By Dan Whelan, founder of New World Survival
Researched from government agencies, university extension services, and other published sources. See our sources
Planning guidance, not medical advice. This section helps households prepare for medical continuity during disruptions. Work with your doctor, pharmacist, and specialist for your household's specific medical needs.
FROM THE FIELD
The person who knows everything is usually the person who cannot answer. Accounts from evacuations, hospital stays, and caregiver emergencies describe the same moment. The patient is too sick or shaken to recall medication names and doses, the caregiver who knows them is the one in the hospital bed, and the phone numbers are locked in a phone. The pattern holds from Gulf Coast hurricanes to California wildfire shelters. A written profile answers when nobody in the room can.
What this category covers
Every medical guide on this site assumes one thing. That this record exists.
A household medical profile is a written record of each person's health needs: diagnoses, medications, allergies, devices, providers, insurance, and emergency contacts, kept in one place. It is planning paperwork you write yourself, not a record from your doctor.
Its contents follow federal guidance. CDC recommends a list of prescription medicines that includes diagnosis, dosage, frequency, medical supply needs, and allergies,1 along with copies of insurance cards, immunization records, and current care plans.2 The profile gathers those pieces so they do not live in five different drawers.
Write it for someone who does not know you. Ready.gov advises older adults to make sure at least one person in their support network knows where emergency supplies are kept and how to use lifesaving equipment or give medicine.3 The profile is how that person learns it.
The record matters most when you are not the one talking. A review of disaster evacuation studies found that many patients reached a new clinic without their prescriptions and without knowing their medication names or doses.7 After one California wildfire evacuation, most evacuees who arrived at shelters without needed medicines could not reach their own physician.8
What these guides do not cover
- Medical decisions, diagnoses, or treatment. Those stay with your providers.
- Drafting legal documents such as advance directives.
- Day-to-day health records between appointments: Personal Health Records
- Organizing and storing the paper copies: Medical Documents and Records
Where to start
Four steps to a profile someone else can use.
-
One page per person.
Include children, older relatives, and anyone you care for who lives outside your home.
Build a Household Medical Profile -
Start with medications and allergies.
They are the details a stranger most needs and is least able to guess.
Medication List -
Add devices and their power needs.
Name each device, its wattage, and who to call about it.
Medical Devices and Power Outages -
Store copies where they will be found.
One in a medical folder, one in your kit, and one with a trusted person.
Grab-and-Go Medical Folder
Guides in this category
The foundational guide. Eight sections, one form.
Related guides elsewhere in Medical Preparedness
Free downloads
Household Medical Profile Worksheet
One fill-in sheet per person, written for someone who has never met them.
Medication List Template
Brand and generic name, dose, frequency, prescriber, pharmacy, refill date, and storage. Space for 15 medications.
Wallet Contact Card
Contacts, allergies, and medications on a card the size of the one in your wallet.
Medical Folder Checklist
The cover sheet for a grab-and-go folder, with a six-month check.
Keeping it current
Write it once. Keep it true.
When to update it
FDA advises reviewing a medication list often and updating it whenever something changes.4 The rest of the profile follows the same rule. Update it after:
- A new prescription, a dose change, or a medicine that was stopped.4
- A new diagnosis, allergy, or medical device.
- A new doctor, pharmacy, or insurance plan.
- A new emergency contact, or a changed phone number.
On a schedule, CDC suggests reviewing an emergency plan every year and checking kit contents every six months.5,6 Pairing the profile review with the six-month kit check keeps both current.
Make sure someone else can use it
CDC advises sharing your emergency plan with the people who support you, and practicing it.5 One practical test: hand the profile to the person who would step in, and ask them to find one medication, one allergy, and one phone number. Anything they cannot find in a minute needs a clearer line. If one person carries the whole plan, start with Caregiver Backup Plans.
FDA suggests always keeping a copy of your medication list with you, as a photo, in an app, or on paper.4 CDC recommends keeping a contact list in a watertight container in your kit.6 The phone copy is convenient. The paper copy works when the battery does not.
From the field · Accounts of evacuations and hospital stays describe the same gap: phone numbers and medication names lived in a phone that was dead, locked, or left behind. A printed copy is what people wish they had carried.
Common questions
Planning questions, answered plainly.
What is a household medical profile?
A written record of each household member's health needs, including diagnoses, medications, allergies, medical devices, providers, insurance, and emergency contacts, kept in one place so anyone helping in an emergency can find it. It is planning guidance you write yourself, not a substitute for records from your providers.
What should a household medical profile include?
Start with what CDC recommends: a list of prescription medicines with diagnosis, dosage, frequency, medical supply needs, and allergies,1 plus copies of insurance cards, immunization records, and care plans such as advance directives.2 Add medical devices, provider and pharmacy contacts, and emergency contacts.
Who should have a copy of our medical profile?
Keep one in your medical folder, one with your emergency kit, and share one with a trusted person. Ready.gov recommends that someone in your support network know where your emergency supplies are kept.3
How often should we update a household medical profile?
Whenever something changes, such as a new prescription, a different dose, or a medicine that was stopped, as FDA advises for medication lists.4 Then review the whole profile on a schedule: CDC suggests reviewing an emergency plan every year and checking kit contents every six months.5,6
Should the profile be on paper or on a phone?
Both. FDA suggests keeping a copy of your medication list with you as a photo, in an app, or on paper.4 CDC recommends keeping contact information in a watertight container in your emergency kit.6 The paper copy still works when a phone is lost, locked, or out of battery.
Sources
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Prepare Your Health: Prescriptions. https://www.cdc.gov/prepare-your-health/take-action/prescriptions.html. Accessed October 6, 2026.
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Prepare Your Health: Paperwork. https://www.cdc.gov/prepare-your-health/take-action/paperwork.html. Accessed October 6, 2026.
- Ready.gov (FEMA). Older Adults. https://www.ready.gov/older-adults. Accessed October 6, 2026.
- U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Create and Keep a Medication List for Your Health. https://www.fda.gov/consumers/consumer-updates/create-and-keep-medication-list-your-health. Accessed October 6, 2026.
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Making an Emergency Plan (Emergency Preparedness and Disability Inclusion). https://www.cdc.gov/disability-emergency-preparedness/people-with-disabilities/make-a-plan.html. Accessed October 6, 2026.
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Building an Emergency Kit (Emergency Preparedness and Disability Inclusion). https://www.cdc.gov/disability-emergency-preparedness/people-with-disabilities/build-a-kit.html. Accessed October 6, 2026.
- Ochi S, Hodgson S, Landeg O, Mayner L, Murray V. Disaster-Driven Evacuation and Medication Loss: a Systematic Literature Review. PLOS Currents Disasters. 2014. https://doi.org/10.1371/currents.dis.fa417630b566a0c7dfdbf945910edd96. Accessed October 6, 2026.
- Mayner L, Stratton SJ. Medication Preparedness during Wildfire Evacuations (abstract A255). Prehospital and Disaster Medicine. 2011. https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/prehospital-and-disaster-medicine/article/a255-medication-preparedness-during-wildfire-evacuations/3FC6923ABD0423DD73CD35FD4BD65C67. Accessed October 6, 2026.
Connected guides
Household Medical Profile connects to the rest of your plan.
First Aid
The hands-on half: emergencies, wounds, burns, and the household kit.
Medications and Prescriptions
Supply, storage, and refill planning.
Medical Documents and Records
Where the profile and its supporting papers live.
Chronic Conditions
Condition-specific additions to the profile.
Children and Infants
What a child's profile needs that an adult's does not.
Older Adults and Caregivers
Profiles that a backup caregiver can follow.