How to Prepare for that Unplanned Emergency Room Visit Part 1: Why?

Having a list of personal health information is critical for medical care, especially in the emergency room.

Why Do You Have to be Ready for an Emergency Room visit?

1. Getting ready with health-related information is vital for timely decision making in the emergency room where minutes count.
2. Medications have side-effects, and some may be the reason you are in the ER.
3. If you need immediate surgery, the doctors need to know the specific blood thinner that is being used. If not, uncontrolled bleeding may happen during surgery. Some blood thinners are reversible by medications and may need to be given before surgery.
4. A Computerized, Health Database That is Accessible to all Hospitals Does Not Exist or at least is not on-line yet.
5. Verbal communication may not be possible. A patient may be in respiratory distress, unconscious or in so much pain, that trying to answer all these questions can be impossible.
6. Doctors’ offices and pharmacies may be closed when you are in an emergency room.
7. You may get sick while on vacation, and there is no way to get your information. Include this in your checklist of the most important things to bring other than your cell phone and passport.
8. The information obtained from the ER is carried over to the hospital if you get admitted and affects future medical orders.
9. Some medications may need to be continued or given while in the ER. A missed dose of metoprolol may lead to a very rapid heart rate. A missed water pill like furosemide can lead to heart failure.
10. A test that was done in the recent past, like a CT scan or MRI, may not be needed to be done again and thus saving you time and radiation exposure.  CT scans and MRIs can take a while to get done, and you can end up staying for hours unnecessarily.
11. If the ER must repeat the imaging study, then the previous information will be beneficial for comparison.

Related Readings:

• The Complete Series of “How to Prepare for that Unplanned Emergency Room Visit”
• Part 1 talks about why preparation is needed for an emergency room visit
• Part 2 lists the most essential medical information to bring to the emergency room.
• Part 3 describes the other medical information that are also important.
• Part 4 enumerates the different ways to carry medical information
• Part 5 lists all the needed medical information in a shortlist that can be copied and pasted to a word processing app ready to be filled.
• Disease Prevention Has a Deadline
• The Two Minute Warning

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