The emergency file: 12 things to have on hand if your mom ends up in the hospital

In the ER they’ll ask you fifteen things and you’ll know seven. The file is so you know all fifteen, whether the person bringing it is your sister, the caregiver, or you from another country.

Updated September 2026 · Orbi, care circle

Why a file if "it’s all on my phone"?

Because in the ER, the phone belongs to one person, that person may not be there, and the information is scattered across photos, chats and your mom’s memory. The file can be physical (an actual folder, kept in one fixed spot in the house, with a copy at the caregiver’s) or digital, shared with everyone who helps care for her. Ideally, both. What matters is that anyone in the family, or the caregiver, can find it and understand it without explanations.

The 12 things

1. National ID (DNI) (photo of front and back) and date of birth.
2. Coverage: PAMI (the national health program for retirees), health insurance (obra social) or private health plan (prepaga), member number, plan, and a photo of the card. The plan’s emergency phone number.
3. Current medication list, with active ingredient, dose and schedule. It’s the first thing they ask and the thing people get wrong most often. If the list lives in one place and gets updated at every appointment, a dated copy goes here.
4. Diagnoses, one line each: "High blood pressure since 2010. Atrial fibrillation, on blood thinners. Mild cognitive impairment, 2024." Plus surgeries, with the year.
5. Allergies to medications and foods. If she has none, write "no known allergies": a blank reads as "I don’t know."
6. Doctors: name, specialty, phone, and which one is the primary care doctor. With PAMI, the name of the assigned primary care doctor and the PAMI office.
7. Latest test results: the most recent EKG, bloodwork, imaging, and the discharge summary (epicrisis) from the last hospital stay. Photos or PDFs are fine.
8. Contacts, in order: who to call first, second and third, with phone number and relationship. And who makes the call if a decision has to be made.
9. How she gets by day to day: whether she walks on her own, uses a walker, gets disoriented, can hear well, wears dentures, uses adult diapers. Knowing this changes everything for the ER team.
10. Advance directives, if she has expressed them: what she would and wouldn’t want in a serious situation. Argentina’s Law 26.529 lets her put them in writing, before a notary (escribano público) or a trial court, with two witnesses. It’s a hard conversation, and it’s better to have it at the kitchen table than in an ICU hallway.
11. Power of attorney or authorization to handle paperwork on her behalf (PAMI, the bank, health insurance), if she can no longer do it herself. A general power of attorney signed before a notary saves months of red tape later.
12. Practical details: who the caregiver is and her phone number, where the keys are, what she eats and doesn’t, who takes the dog.

That makes twelve, plus one more that isn’t information but a decision: who updates the file, and when. Once a month or after every appointment. If nobody is in charge of it, in six months it’s out of date.

What goes on the first page?

What a doctor needs in 30 seconds: name, age, coverage and member number, allergies, diagnoses in three lines, medications in a short list, and the phone number of the person who makes decisions. Everything else goes behind it. If the file is digital, that first page is the one you print, date and stick on the fridge.

How do I put it together in one afternoon?

• Gather every medical paper in the house, the blister packs and the insurance cards on the table. Take photos.
• Call the sibling who knows the diagnoses by heart and have them dictate.
• At the next appointment, ask the primary care doctor to review the medication list and sign and date it.
• Send the digital version to each sibling and to the caregiver. Keep a printed copy in the house.

What if I live far away?

The file is the most useful thing you can do from abroad, and it’s what later lets you talk to the doctor on the phone knowing what you’re talking about. There’s more detail in How to care for your parents from another country. And if she was just discharged and you’re putting this together late, don’t worry: that’s normal. Start with the medication list from The first 72 hours at home.