Be Prepared...

by David Stern

October 2002

While we all would like to think that we have made plans for contingencies, more often than not, things fall between the cracks. 

Estate planning (wills and trusts), insurance (health, life, disability) and medical proxies (powers of attorney) are all things which we know intellectually, are very important, but psychologically are often hard to face.

However the cost, both financially and emotionally, of not addressing these issues can be devastating. It is not surprising that each of these areas conjures up images of death or illness. It is equally not surprising that most of us simply do not want to really think about things that undercut our sense of immortality.

Insurance companies have taken up the marketing gauntlet by changing the image of medical insurance from sickness to wellness. The basic product is the same, you pay a premium so that if you get sick, the expenses associated with the illness wouldn’t cause a huge economic hardship. The current twist comes in the form of life style choices that emphasize healthier attitudes, including reduced premiums for non-smokers and discounts at health clubs. It is also a matter of control. An individual may select how he or she wishes to live a life…and inevitably…a death. Therefore, ignoring a needed revision to one’s will or medical proxy, deprives the individual of exercising a decision that would affect not only himself/herself, but loved ones as well.

All this presupposes order in what is now a chaotic world. Emergencies-those events that we can neither control nor predict occur at a rate far in excess of what we can imagine. What then? Where is our medical proxy…our medical records? While the tragic events of 9/11 show us that no one is immune from catastrophes, it doesn’t change the fact that emergencies happen everyday at an astronomical rate.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently released statistics showing that in the year 2000 there were 108 million emergency department visits, up 14% from 1999. Assuming a constant rate of increase, by the year 2004 there will be 182 million emergency department visits. Who visits emergency rooms? According to National Safe Kids Campaign, in 2000, more than 6.9 million children ages 14 and under were treated in hospital emergency rooms for unintentional injuries. More alarming is the CDC statistic that older Americans-75 years and older, had the highest rate of emergency department visits with 65 visits per 100 persons per year.

If the emergency department personnel do not have access to one’s medical records or medical proxy information, the individual has given up his/her ability to exercise control. 

      
online-registries offers individuals:

• an invaluable organizational tool

• immediate access to critical information in the event of an emergency

• a simple, safe and secure solution to storage and retrieval of medical information.

• medicalproxy.com offers members the security of knowing that their wishes will be respected even if they are incapacitated and unable to participate in treatment decisions. Members with a medical proxy or health care power of attorney, also known as advance directives, can register the information with medicalproxy.com to make the name(s) and location(s) of their designated agent(s) available to those with a need to know.

• senior-records.com gives its members a safe, simple, secure and affordable way to organize their medical histories. Tailored to the needs of seniors, the site provides them a valuable tool by making information available to designated caregivers and emergency medical personnel right away, whenever and wherever it is needed.

• kidrecords.com helps members protect their children against medical error. It enables parents to document their children’s medical histories – including information about allergies, illnesses, medications and special needs. kidrecords.com is especially valuable for non-custodial parents, for children in the care of others or for children who are away from home ( e.g. at school or at camp). In an emergency, physicians and other caregivers can get the information they need to make the appropriate treatment decisions when every second counts. kidrecords.com allows parents to organize their child’s medical data in a portable and accessible format.

• med-records.com will offer a comprehensive system of medical record management. The site will be launched in Summer, 2002.

Information on all three existing websites is available to hospitals accredited by the Joint Commission for Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO), the nation’s leading organization for accreditation of hospitals and healthcare organizations of all kinds.

David Stern is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School and the founder of online-registries, Inc., a family of Web-based healthcare sites that includes medproxy.com, senior-records.com and kidrecords.com. Visit www.online-registries or call (401) 841-5600