How important are allergies?

[gvandellen]

How important are allergies to you as a pre-hospital provider? I ask this because as I was thinking that our DL only says that we are a organ donor? Would it benefit society to have allergies or certain information like diabetic printed on their DL? I don't want to get into a discussion on HIPPA and right of privacy on this and how the DMV would be involved and how it would need to be approved to get printed on a license. I've thought about that. I'll give you a quick scenario.

PD pulls over someone because they are swerving from lane to lane. PD pulls the person over and they are compliant at first. They give their LIC but the officers gut feels like they are DUI because of the erratic driving? The person gets defensive and now the person is off to jail.

Given that scenario do you think that PD having this information and them seeing that the person is diabetic they should then dispatch EMS to find the person BGL is 25?

Would you look one more place for info on a patient?

Examples if your not familiar:

ICE on the cell phone directory...In Case of Emergency line

The Bracelet/Necklace...

Car Seats with info on the child on it....

I'm not talking Big Brother watching? Chip in the arm....just information that may kill them in the real world.

[Scaramedic]

How important are allergies?

Well an anaphylactic reaction can cause death. That seems pretty important to me.

[ccmedoc]

If your asking about allergies on DL..maybe a bit extensive for some, maybe peanuts or beestings would be nice. Gives you a head start for unresponsive pts.

I think the noting of diabetic would be nice, for the reason you stated.

I think the ICE thing is a joke..personally :wink:

HIPAA (*notice the letters used ) doesn't really apply with this.

*Health Insurance Portability and accountability Act

[akflightmedic]

Noting diabetic on the DL, I could see some benefit to that. Not thrilled about it, but it could be useful for the officer.

As far as noting allergies or anything else, no I see no use for it.

First, if they are unresponsive from allergies, I have bigger fish to fry than checking their DL so I may know what is going on. Duh, an assessment will answer all I need to know and it is really all irrelevant anyways if they have already gone unresponsive. I have therapies to initiate.

If they are not unresponsive, then they can tell me or if they are in the swelling shut phase I think I may figure it out by their nice bluish tint and panicked eyes.

I really do not see any benefit to listing other conditions on the license and I have not even touched on the big brother aspect of it all. The information has to be in a database and in this case it would be the DMV. Who has access to those files and do I want them to?

I think we should stick to the good old fashioned necklace or bracelet medical alert tag.

And this topic got me to thinking, in all my years, not once have I used the information from a bracelet or chain to change my treatment therapy. As I said, an assessment and proper timely use of your diagnostic tools will usually tell you the brunt of what you need to do to treat the emergency.

[ccmedoc]

If they are not unresponsive, then they can tell me or if they are in the swelling shut phase I think I may figure it out by their nice bluish tint and panicked eyes.

previously, and often, we have established that a few EMS professionals have suspect assessment abilities..But I agree with your point..

...I have not even touched on the big brother aspect of it all.

...I'm not talking Big Brother watching...

Big brother.........Oh Brother! :glasses5: :glasses4:

Good 'ole American paranoia..