This week I’m coming to you from my EMT perspective. How to safe guard your health and care in an emergency. It’s best to have all medical information printed out, and put on your fridge door.
The Refrigerator?
Really? Yes, really. In an emergency, especially with an unconscious or altered mental status patient, the first place EMS services look for information is on the refrigerator. Sometimes even in the freezer. But to make it easy for us, without hunting and losing time, put documents in an envelope, labels as medical records for who – and have one for each person in the household. On a stainless steel refrigerator, tape it, since a magnet won’t stick.
A good emergency medical form includes all of the following:
- Patients name, address, phone number, age, date of birth and social security number, and height and weight
- Emergency contact name and phone number, and the relationship
- a list of medical conditions
- a list of medications, with dosages
- Any recent injuries or surgeries, and past medical procedures
- Any implants, joint replacements or pacemakers
- A DNR, MOLST and any forms the patients physician may have signed. These must be the ORIGINALS.
- Any physical impairments – hearing, vision, dentures, etc.
Why is this information necessary? Because in an emergency there may be no one else there who knows the patient well enough to provide us with all this data. Many family members don’t know all the drugs the parent may take, or what they are for. And if we are treating a severe sudden onset of anything (a heart attack, stroke, diabetic emergency, or septic fever for example) the patient may not be able to tell us either. EMS staff need to know about medications so anything used to treat the patient won’t cause an interaction with their regulars medications, and a list of any conditions may help us narrow down what’s wrong.
In an emergency, even the best friend or family member can be so upset all the questions EMS can ask are overwhelming. It’s much better to be prepared and have this all written out. This is true for every family member, not just the elderly. Children fall or have seizures, strokes happen to 50 year olds, any parent can trip and fall down the stairs, and accidents around the home happen to anyone. Wouldn’t you feel better just being able to hand the EMT a piece of paper without going thru a lot of questions?
Here’s a link to a good emergency medical form:
https://911ready.org/documents/emergency_preparedness_docs/Emergency_Medical_Data_English.pdf
if a lot of medications need to be listed, write them all out on a separate piece of paper and attach it to the emergency form. Often your doctor;s office or the hospital can print this out for you.
And Put the Form other Places too
I also suggest a copy of the medical record and medication list, if it’s separate, in your car glove compartment. And auto accident can happen any time the vehicle is on the road; the accident may n ot be your fault, but you can be hurt, sometime critically. EMS needs to kn ow as much about you as possible to treat you safely. even better, keep a list of medications in your wallet. EMS crews will look in both the car and a wallet for info.
I give this form out at any local functions where our fire department / ambulance squad has a table display set up. I realize most people haven’t thought about this kind of document, but it is really important. Not just for your parents, or your children, but for everyone.
I can’t stress this enough – This information could be the one thing that tells EMS quickly and efficiently about you when you can’t speak for yourself.
