List-making to release old medical records

You may wish you had the carte blanc services of a family member who is a professional organizer, but my poor mom can’t enjoy a glass of wine with me without me starting to dig around and organize something. “Kacy, get your hands outta there!” is commonly heard at my parents’ home (and has been since I was a kid!). Usually, if it’s not too late at night, she yields.  

Lately we’ve been working on wrangling my father’s vast medical files. We quickly learned that in order to let go of a LOT of the records, we needed to keep a log of his notable medical tests and events. We’re probably about a third the way though his medical stashes, and with the help of this log, what needs to be kept fits in just a couple file folders. Once we get through the latest stash we found, I’ll type up the log and leave it in his file folder and my Evernote. 

Do you have an overflowing medical file, or multiple stashes of medical papers? You might not need to keep it all if you record the events in a typed chronology. Please let me know in the comments if this is something you’ve done or imagine to be helpful!