Part 2 of 2 parts
This is my favorite part of August
awareness month, Medic Alert Awareness Month. There is an abundance
of information that we need to be aware of when it comes to the
reasons for wearing medic alert jewelry. While I generally blog
about this from the diabetes perspective, there are many diseases and
medical conditions that would be greatly helped if those patients
would wear medic alert jewelry.
Even seniors should consider a form of medic alert. Then if you are a senior, how much can you afford to
pay on a monthly basis or will your children be paying for this? I
am not saying this is the best available, but check out this link.
Not only do they have a system similar to a realtor key system to
prevent emergency personnel from breaking in, but they also have
medical information available and this can save time as well and get
you the right treatment. I would urge every senior to explore the
site, as it could be a lifesaver.
Medic alert jewelry is important for
many conditions and diseases and will alert first responders to your
condition or disease. This is also available to the hospital
emergency department and other medical staff if necessary. Normally
with medic alert jewelry, it can be worn by all family members
needing this and can provide information relating to care wishes and
information about the illness when the number on the jewelry is
called.
And yes, most every first responder or
emergency medical personnel know to look for this when assessing a
patient. There are always a few know-it-alls that will ignore medic
alert jewelry, but they seldom remain on the job long as their fellow
first responders do not want them around for liability reasons. They
also are often banned from working when they are discovered ignoring
medic alert information as they have been trained to look for medic
alert jewelry and make that phone call.
Some of the information available
includes:
#1. Emergency Medical Information
Record – this is a personal health record stored in our secure
electronic database and accessible to first responders in
emergencies. This includes information for adults, kids, essential
information including family members to be notified, safe return
information for people with early Alzheimer's or other dementia, and
advance directive management.
#2. Emergency response available 24/7
so the attending physician or EMT can call a MedicAlert agent to
obtain your treatment protocol or response plan.
#3. Family notification 24/7 by
MedicAlert agents to designated family members or friends you wish to
be notified.
I have written several blogs previously
about this topic. One of the most read is this one about the pros
and cons of the different types of jewelry. Surprisingly, the second
popular is this one about medical tattoos. These are mostly useless
if you are unable to talk as you have few of the medic alert benefits
and no phone numbers for first responders to call or physicians to
call for medical information. Yet, it seems the “in-thing” for
many young people that don't understand the importance of medic
alert. There are many people selling other items to alert people,
but none that I have found that have the information to back them up.
Occasionally there is a telephone number for the doctor during the
day or office hours, but nothing for other medical information.
Two other blogs include this one and
this one. If you are a person subject to hypoglycemia and
hyperglycemia, you may wish to consider the one above for seniors
where a press of the button will summon help. This could be
extremely important if you live alone or spend a lot of time alone in
your residence.
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