How five minutes on your phone can help ensure your medical decisions are honored in an emergency.
Every March, Saint Patrick's Day rolls around with its familiar symbols of luck: four leaf clovers, pots of gold, and the idea that maybe fortune will smile upon us if we just wear enough green.
However, when it comes to your health and your legal wishes, luck is not a strategy. If something unfortunate occurs, luck does not guarantee that emergency responders can track down family members or locate appropriate legal documents to let them know what type of medical treatment you prefer.
That is why one of the smartest adulting moves you can make takes less than five (5) minutes and uses something you already carry everywhere: your phone.
Both iPhones and Android devices allow you to store emergency medical information that can be accessed from your lock screen. Specifically, your emergency contacts, medications, allergies, and even a reference to your advanced healthcare directive can be available immediately when it matters most. Rather than just storing your advanced health care directive in your glove compartment or in your file cabinet, consider updating your phone with your legal medical information in case something unfortunate occurs.
What is an Advanced Healthcare Directive?
Estate planning is not just about distributing assets; it is also about protecting yourself. A financial power of attorney allows someone you trust to manage your affairs if you are unable to do so, while a healthcare directive ensures your medical wishes are honored. In essence, an advanced healthcare directive is a legal document that explains your medical wishes if you are unable to speak for yourself. This document names the person you that appoint as your healthcare proxy or medical decision maker and provides instructions about life sustaining treatment.
What is Life-Sustaining Treatment?
In North Carolina, “life sustaining treatment” is generally referred to as “life-prolonging measures.” It means medical procedures that would serve to postpone death artificially with treatment which as sustaining or restoring a critical bodily function. Examples of life prolonging treatment include: a ventilator, IV fluids, or even antibiotics. Overall, life sustaining treatment can be an option to keep the body functioning when an underlying condition is not expected to immediately improve.
Using Apple's Medical ID
- Open the health app on your iPhone
- Tap your profile picture in the top corner
- Select medical ID
- Tap edit from there you can add emergency contacts, medical conditions, allergies, medication, and blood type. Most importantly you may include information about your advanced healthcare directive. Although Apple’s medical ID does not allow you to upload the full legal document, you may include a note such as:
Advanced healthcare directive on file healthcare agent: Bridget Jones, 704-867-5309, and copy stored with Dr. Spock, and in my cloud drive.
Note: make sure the settings show when locked is turned on so first responders can access the information.
Using Android's Emergency Information Feature
Android phones offer a similar tool often called “emergency information” or “safety and emergency settings.” This information can also be accessed directly from the lock screen during an emergency.
- Open settings
- Search for Emergency Information or Safety & Emergency
- Enter details such as emergency contacts, allergies, medication, and medical conditions.
You may also add a note referencing your advanced directive. For example:
Advanced healthcare directive completed. Healthcare agent: Jason Bourne 333-444-555. Document stored in Google Drive.
Why This Simple Step Matters
Hospitals routinely ask patients whether they have advanced directives; however, in emergency situations, medical teams may not have time to locate paperwork or reach family members before making critical decisions. By placing key information in your phone’s emergency settings, you help ensure that health care providers know that a directive exists, and they may be able to contact your healthcare agent quickly. In this way your medical treatment preferences are more likely to be honored. Updating your medical information on your phone is a small step that can prevent confusion and stress during an already difficult moment.
Five Minutes of Adulting
Many people postpone estate planning because it sounds complicated or decide that it is something to worry about decades down the road. However, organizing your emergency information on your phone is one of the simplest first steps you can take toward being prepared. This year for St. Patrick’s Day, you and your friends and family just need five minutes on your phones already in your hands. Think of it as the electronic version of carrying an emergency card in your wallet except for this one is much harder to lose.
Ultimately, a little luck truly does help; and blessings are even better. However, preparation helps more! Saint Patrick's Day celebrates luck, but the best kind of luck is the kind that you help create for yourself. By taking a few minutes to add emergency contacts, medications, and a note about your advanced healthcare directive to your phone ensures that the with the unexpected happens the people caring for you have the information that they need. This Saint Patrick's Day enjoy the celebrations. Just don’t push your luck! Consider taking a few minutes of preparation and updating information in your phone. Those few minutes may make all the difference!
