EMERGENCIES, TECHNOLOGY, AND THE OHIO HEALTHCARE POWER OF ATTORNEY
Emergency Medical Information
Technology offers great help in case of an emergency. Most of us carry a smartphone where ever we go. I encourage you to use the emergency capabilities and features of your smartphone. I have an iPhone, but I believe that other smartphones such as Android devices offer the features discussed here. Those are:
- “Emergency button”: when the iPhone is opened to “Enter Passcode” window, in the bottom left of that window the word “Emergency” is visible. Pushing that “button” takes one to a screen with the telephone keypad and two additional features in red: “Emergency Call” at the top, center of the screen, and “Medical ID” at the bottom left of the screen. NOTICE: this, and the following two procedures, can be done without unlocking the phone. This is a great gift the cell phone industry has given us.
- If the “Emergency Call” is pressed, the iPhone will dial your “ICE” [“In case of emergency”] contact. First responders can use this to call your ICE person to inform him/her of your situation and obtain information needed for your care.
- If the “Emergency Call” is pressed, it will take the person to a screen with medical information on it you have inputted from the “Health” app on the iPhone on the “Summary Screen” by pushing the “Emergency Access to Medical ID” button. This can be vital for first responders in the event of an accident or a medical emergency.
Health Provider Portal
Chances are, your primary care physician belongs to a health care system. If so, chances are also good that the healthcare system provides an online “portal” that tracks every doctor’s appointment, medication, healthcare condition, medical history, etc. A person can access that portal on the smartphone by downloading an appropriate App (“FollowMyHealth” is the app I use to gain access to the “My Chart” medical information used by the health system I use.
Be sure to give your “ICE” person your username and password, or other access information, to your portal App on your phone so that he/she can give that information to medical providers if you are not able to (e.g., in case of an accident and you are transported to a health care facility outside of your health provider’s network). You should also give that person the passcode to unlock your smartphone.
Store your Healthcare Power of Attorney and Living Will on your Smart Phone
Email .pdf copies of your healthcare power of attorney and your living will to yourself, or have someone else do it. (In my office, we do that as a matter of courtesy to our clients.). Then the client can store the document on the smartphone. On the iPhone, the documents can be stored in a file called “Files” (white background, blue file folder image). Then the first responders, who now have access to your phone, the hospital personnel, other healthcare providers, and your ICE can transmit copies of these documents to the Emergency Room Front Desk so the documents can be printed and are readily available to the ER personnel who are taking care of you.
Do not fail to utilize the power of your smartphone to be sure you get help if, or when, you have a medical emergency.
Contact John Grundy
Contact The Law Office of John Grundy at 330-637-9030 for help with your Ohio Power of Attorney and Living Will.