An Integrative Care Plan: How to Keep Every Clinician Informed

Picture someone who sees a primary care clinician, a pharmacist, an acupuncturist, and a massage therapist, and who just started an herbal supplement a friend suggested. (This is an illustrative example, not a real patient.) The way to keep all four informed is one written integrative care plan. It lists your goals, your care team, and everything you use, and you bring the same updated copy to every visit.

Without a shared plan, each person sees only part of the story. The prescriber may not know about the herb. The acupuncturist may not know about a new medicine. The information just lives in different places.

Using both kinds of care is common. NCCIH, the U.S. National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, reports that in a 2012 national survey, more than 30 percent of adults used health approaches outside mainstream medicine, and “most people who use non-mainstream approaches also use conventional health care.” NCCIH also says integrative health “aims for well-coordinated care among different providers and institutions.” A shared plan is one practical way for you to support that coordination.

By the Integrative Health Evidence Guide Team | Updated September 24, 2026

Get Help Right Away If Something Feels Wrong

A care plan is a communication tool. It is not for emergencies. If a symptom feels severe, sudden, or life-threatening, call your local emergency number now. Don't delay care to find or update your plan.

Three Terms That Shape the Plan

NCCIH uses these words in specific ways:

Complementary: a non-mainstream approach used together with conventional medicine.
Alternative: a non-mainstream approach used in place of conventional medicine.
Integrative: bringing conventional and complementary approaches together “in a coordinated way,” with a focus on the whole person.

The word “coordinated” is why a shared plan matters. For more on the first two terms, see our guide on why the difference between complementary and alternative care matters.

Stage 1: Build Your One-Page Care Plan

Keep it short enough to read quickly during a visit. Include these parts:

Your Care Team

Each person's name and role (for example, primary care clinician, pharmacist, acupuncturist, physical therapist, dentist).
What each one helps you with.
How to reach each office, and whether they use a patient portal.

Your Goals

One to three goals in your own words, such as sleeping through the night or walking without stopping.
Which team members are working on each goal.

For help putting goals into words, see our guide to whole-person health goals for symptoms, function, sleep, and daily life.

Everything You Take

NCCIH advises bringing “a written list of everything you take, how often you take each product, and the doses.” For each item, write down:

The product name, dose, and how often you take it.
Whether it's a prescription, an over-the-counter medicine, a vitamin or mineral, an herb, or a probiotic.
Who recommended or prescribed it, and when you started.
For herbs, the scientific name, the plant part used, and the form (capsule, tea, tincture). Our guide to identifying an herb by scientific name, plant part, and product form explains why these details matter.

Practices That Aren't Pills

NCCIH groups complementary approaches by their main input. Use its groups to make sure nothing is left off:

Nutritional: special diets, dietary supplements, herbs, probiotics.
Psychological: for example, mindfulness.
Physical: for example, massage or spinal manipulation.
Combinations: for example, yoga, tai chi, acupuncture, or dance or art therapies.

Open Questions

Anything you're considering starting, stopping, or changing, so you can ask about it before you act.

Stage 2: Share the Plan Before and During Every Visit

NCCIH's tips for talking with providers match this stage:

“List the complementary health practices you use on your patient history form.”
“At each visit, be sure to tell your providers about what complementary health approaches you are using.”
“Don't wait for your providers to ask about any complementary health practice you are using.”

Give every team member the same version, including practitioners outside a medical office. Our guide to massage therapy intake shows what that sharing can look like with one type of practitioner.

Stage 3: Ask Before You Add Anything New

NCCIH's advice is simple: “If you are considering a new complementary health practice, ask questions.” These questions work with most team members:

What do you know about the evidence for this, for someone in my situation?
Could it interact with anything already on my list?
Is there anything on my list that makes this a poor fit right now?
What should I watch for, and who should I tell if I notice it?
Who else on my team should hear about this before I start?

If you already take a prescription, our guide on questions to bring when a supplement and prescription may interact goes deeper.

NCCIH's Herbs at a Glance fact sheets can help you prepare. Each one gives “common names, what the science says, potential side effects and cautions, and resources for more information.” Use them to write better questions, not to decide on your own.

Stage 4: Update the Plan After Every Change

Add a short change log at the bottom of the page. For each change, note:

The date.
What changed (started, stopped, new dose, new practitioner).
Who made or suggested the change.
Which team members you've told so far.

The last line matters most. It shows you at a glance who may still be working from old information.

Stage 5: Close the Loop Between Offices

You don't have to carry every message yourself. At each visit, you can ask:

Can you send notes from today to my other clinicians? What do you need from me to do that?
Is there anything from today that my pharmacist or my other practitioners should know right away?
How do you prefer to receive updates from my other providers?

Warning Boundaries: Where Extra Care Matters

“Natural” Does Not Mean Well Studied

NCCIH notes that researchers have done large, rigorous studies on only a few dietary supplements, and “the results often showed that the products didn't work for the conditions studied.” It adds that more needs to be learned about these products' “safety and potential interactions with medicines and other natural products.”

Some Herbs Can Change How Medicines Work

According to NCCIH:

St. John's wort “interacts with many types of drugs.”
Goldenseal “may change the way your body processes many drugs, including the diabetes medicine metformin.”
Concentrated green tea supplements “can reduce blood levels of some drugs,” such as atorvastatin and nadolol.

These are examples, not a complete list. Ask your pharmacist and prescriber to check your own combination.

Medicines That Need Special Attention

NCCIH says people who take medicines with a “narrow therapeutic index,” such as digoxin, cyclosporine, and warfarin, “should take special care to tell their health care providers about their use of herbal supplements.” If you take one of these, ask your prescriber or pharmacist which parts of your plan they most need to see.

Before a Procedure

If you have a procedure coming up, see our supplement disclosure checklist for procedures.

Replacing Conventional Care

If you're thinking about using an approach in place of a treatment you already have, that's the “alternative” use NCCIH describes. NCCIH encourages you to “discuss any decisions about treatment or care with your health care provider.” Don't stop or change a prescribed medicine on your own because of anything on your plan or on this page.

Your Decision Path: What to Do Next

Does a symptom feel severe or sudden? Call your local emergency number. Everything else can wait.
Do you have a procedure coming up? Use the procedure checklist linked above, and share your full plan with the procedure team.
Are you thinking of adding a supplement, herb, or practice? Add it to “Open Questions,” then ask your prescriber and pharmacist the Stage 3 questions before you start.
Do you want to stop or change a prescription? Talk with the prescriber first. This page can't guide that decision.
Did something already change? Update your change log, then tell each team member. If you take one of the medicines named above, contact your prescriber or pharmacist rather than waiting to be asked.
Has nothing changed? Bring the plan anyway and ask each clinician to confirm that their records match it.

What the Sources Support, and What They Don't

Verified: NCCIH describes integrative health as coordinated care and advises telling your providers about all medicines, supplements, and complementary practices, with a written list of doses and how often you take them.
Expert guidance: NCCIH recommends listing practices on intake forms, bringing them up at every visit, and asking questions before starting something new.
Uncertain: For many supplements and herbs, safety and interaction information is still limited, and research on psychological and physical approaches “varies widely depending on the practice.”
Not covered here: Whether any specific product or practice is right for you. Only your care team can help you decide that.

Printable Checklist: My Integrative Care Plan

Care team list with roles and contact details.
One to three goals, and who is working on each.
Every prescription, over-the-counter medicine, supplement, herb, and probiotic, with dose and how often.
Herb details: scientific name, plant part, and form.
Practices that aren't pills (diet, mindfulness, massage, yoga, acupuncture, and similar).
Open questions to ask before any change.
Change log with date, change, source, and who has been told.
The same updated copy given to every clinician.

About This Guide

This article was written by Integrative Health Evidence Guide.org Research Team. It draws on public information from the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, including Complementary, Alternative, or Integrative Health: What's In a Name?, Herbs at a Glance, 4 Tips: Start Talking With Your Health Care Providers About Complementary Health Approaches, and 6 Tips: How Herbs Can Interact With Medicines. To learn how we choose and check sources, read our Editorial Standards.

Medical information disclaimer: This guide is general education only. It is not medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment, and it is not individual guidance from any clinician. It does not recommend any product, practice, or provider. Talk with your own qualified health care professionals before you start, stop, or change any medicine, supplement, or health practice. In an emergency, call your local emergency number.