[Reblog] Emergency Medical Information in a Wallet

From the 16 November 2013 post of Aurun Martin’s Blog

How many of us have our emergency medical information in our physical wallets? This might not be a relevant question today because patient healthcare records are stored online in this digital age.

What happens if something unfortunate occurs when one is traveling and do not have access to Internet or even a smartphone? One possible solution is to have a paper-based health card in your wallet.

But, then the health card can hold only limited information. So, what is the prioritized information that the card can hold? I can think of the following important information:

• Name, age, gender, blood group
• Family history, allergies
• Personal doctor’s contact number
• Unique healthcare Id linked to one of your unique identification cards (E.g. Election Card, Driving License, etc.)

http://www.health.ny.gov/publications/0972.pdf

This card works well in a scenario when the person is in an emergency situation, and someone else looks at the card and shares the information possibly to a national healthcare toll-free number (wishful thinking!) or healthcare provider referencing the unique healthcare Id.

Most wallets contain pictures of family members, identification cards, credit and debit cards, cash, and coins. In this crowded wallet, do we have room to add this important card that might save our lives?
Most important, how does the other person know the existence of this precious card in our wallet?

Few links are shared below to enter your healthcare information, download, and print the health card:

• Medicine Wallet Card – http://www.ahrq.gov/patients-consumers/diagnosis-treatment/treatments/safemeds/walletform.html
• Health Information Document – http://www.health.ny.gov/publications/0972.pdf
• Get My Health Card – http://www.getmyhealthcard.org/index.php/get-my-card

Related articles

• Free Emergency Medical ID Wallet Card Generator (myfrugalsavings.com)