Give Someone Access to Your Medical Information STAT!

By Cheryl Mattox Berry

My daughter’s godmother, Rosalind, experienced the most frantic 48 hours of her life when her only living sibling, Dianne, fell ill in another city. She was unable to provide medical information to aid doctors treating Dianne.

At first, doctors thought Dianne, a contract instructor at a professional school, had suffered a stroke when she was found unresponsive at an Oklahoma City hotel on July 31. She was rushed to the hospital and placed on a ventilator. They found Rosalind’s name as an emergency contact among her sister’s belongings.

Doctors needed specific information about Dianne’s heart surgery before they could perform an MRI. However, Rosalind didn’t have all the information, and hospitals that she knew about wouldn’t release Dianne’s medical records because of privacy laws.

Rosalind turned to Facebook, hoping friends and relatives could recall dates and hospitals while she prepared to fly from Houston to Oklahoma City. Several responded with bits and pieces that turned out to be incorrect. Dianne’s former boss heard about her situation, called the number listed in the Facebook post and gave Rosalind the information doctors needed.

By then, 36 hours had passed.

Doctors ruled out an MRI because Dianne had a metal aortic valve. They traced her illness to an infected peritoneal dialysis catheter that had been removed earlier at another hospital. The infection had spread to her brain, causing encephalitis.

“When she was finally removed from the ventilator, she had lost four days of her memory and couldn’t remember her address, phone number, where she had been found or that she had a car,” said Rosalind, who spent two days at the hospital.

Dianne is being treated with strong antibiotics, and her condition has improved. She is working with a physical, occupational and respiratory therapist and might be discharged this week if she can remember her address. Dianne was staying at the hotel temporarily because her apartment was infested with fruit flies.

Having gone through this experience with Rosalind, I urge readers to do the following:

1. Carry identification and the name of an emergency contact with you at all times, including at the gym and while walking, running and biking.
2. Give the emergency contact information to your children and keep it in a prominent place in your home.
3. Choose a medical power of attorney, which authorizes one person to make health care decisions.
4. Write down your passwords and give them to a family member, trusted friend or store them in a password vault.
5. Designate a personal representative to access your health information under The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA.)
6. Tell a family member and trusted friend about your medical history and where they can find the records.
7. Keep your doctors’ names in a place that someone can find easily.
8. Make sure that your medical records are accurate and up to date.

With so much technology at our fingertips, information can be found with a few clicks if you know where to look, how to get it and have permission to do so. In an emergency, time is of the essence. Be prepared so others can help save your life.