Caregivers take on different responsibilities depending on the patient's condition and their relationship with them. Some of you may manage all aspects of care, including:
- Scheduling and managing doctor appointments
- Driving the patient to appointments
- Preparing a list of questions and concerns beforehand
- Attending and participating in medical visits
- Asking questions during appointments
- Listening and helping the patient remember doctor recommendations
- Calling or emailing providers outside of scheduled visits
- Tracking and ordering medical supplies
- Managing medications and tracking issues
- Gathering information on healthcare conditionsOthers may only manage some of these responsibilities.
No matter the case, caregiving is challenging and time-consuming if you don’t have an efficient way to manage it. This article will share existing resources you can leverage to make your managing role easier.
1. Manage appointments: Get access to your loved one's patient portal
Managing appointments is a big part of caregiving. However, Keeping track of doctor visits, treatment schedules, and follow-ups can feel overwhelming—especially if you're balancing a full-time job or family responsibilities. Knowing when and where appointments are happening helps you plan ahead and decide whether you need to be there in person.
Additionally, there may be times when you can’t be there in person —whether due to work, distance, or other commitments. Later, when you check in and ask, "What did the doctor say?" your loved one might struggle to remember key details or next steps. Moments like these can leave you wishing you had been there to hear the information firsthand.
So, how can you automatically add appointments to your calendar, record the doctor's recommendations, and even remind your loved ones—without constantly asking them?
Fortunately, there is a simple solution: Request access to their medical information.
With access, you can:
✔ View all upcoming appointments directly on your phone/computer, including the title, time, location, and contact number.
✔ See doctor’s notes and visit summaries, which often include key details about what was discussed and the next steps in their care plan.
Many healthcare institutions use digital systems where patients can access appointments, medications, bills, and more. In many cases, this medical information can be shared with family members to help with care coordination.
What You Can Do Next:
2. Track Symptoms & Side Effects
There are usually days or weeks between doctor appointments. During visits, doctors often ask how the patient has been feeling, but most of the time, patients struggle to remember all the symptoms or side effects they experienced. When doctors ask, "How long have you had this symptom?", or “how long does this symptom last?” patients may have no clear answer.
Tracking symptoms regularly can be extremely helpful in providing accurate information to doctors, aiding in diagnosis, and ensuring appropriate treatment.
However, symptom tracking can be time-consuming, especially when you already have a lot on your plate. That’s why we created the Notes feature in the DewDew app. Simply record your observations in your own words, and DewDew will automatically organize them into a calendar view, making it easy to review symptoms over time and share a clear record with your loved one’s care team during appointments.
3. Manage Questions to Ask the Doctor
Depending on the patient’s condition, they may need a caregiver’s help to ask questions during visit, especially if they are struggling with communication or remembering important details.
We offer several checklists to help you ask the important questions at different stages of care, like discussing the treatment plan, and follow-up question after the treatment—you can find them the Toolkits page.
However, between visits, you might have questions that aren’t urgent enough to call or message the doctor, so you plan to ask during the next appointment. But these questions are often forgotten.
When the doctor asks, "How do you feel?" patients may forget to mention important details. Later, as a caregiver, when you ask, "Did you talk to the doctor about...?" they might say, "Oh, I forgot."Additionally, as a caregiver, writing down questions before the visit can be time-consuming, especially when you’re juggling multiple responsibilities.
No worries, DewDew will handle this. Just record your thoughts, questions, or concerns in your own words, and DewDew will automatically turn them into organized questions and add them to your question list. This saves you from having to type, organize, or rewrite everything yourself, making caregiving much easier.
4. Management Support
Social support can be incredibly helpful in reducing the burden of caregiving. However, surprisingly, when you have multiple sources of support or need assistance from different people, managing that support efficiently can become a challenge. For instance, if you drive your loved one to treatment while your friends A, B, and C offer to help with food preparation and picking up your kids, you may find yourself texting back and forth to coordinate schedules and availability. Somehow, what was meant to be helpful can turn into an extra task of its own.
DewDew can help with this too. Just tell DewDew what you need help with, and it will create tasks for your support network. Friends and family can claim the tasks and mark them as complete, while you can easily track everyone's progress—all without the endless back-and-forth texting.
Care management can be overwhelming, but having the right tools and strategies in place can make a significant difference. We are hear to support.
