Can't blood be typed quickly, if necessary? Certainly, if it's wrong on a bracelet, it should be corrected.

I wonder if in an emergency the docs would rely on the blood typing shown on a Medic Alert item or card when it's essential to get something so important right the first time, or if it would be double checked anyway, should a transfusion be needed? Mdln would know.

Neither my wife or I has a medical condition or allergies that I think would be relevant for someone treating us in an emergency to know. I should check with my doc, though, I don't know enough about what such things might be to be certain.

I wear a small gold embossed medallion [about 3/4"] on a chain around my neck. I never take it off. I've worn bracelets in the past but have either lost them or had them stolen. I've had this medallion for almost 20 years with incidence.

Edited to add that I also carry a medic alert card with me at all times when I leave my home in the event I'm in an accident and my wallet is searched for ID. It never hurts to have a back up.

My child has O negative blood, as of a couple weeks ago. I've known they have O blood for 20 something years, and I have negative blood for 50 something years. Today is first time I've ever heard they had O negative blood.

It is the rarest of all bloods. While they are the "universal donor", they can only have blood from O negative people; that's the only way they can have blood!

As a negative blood person, I'm sure I would have noticed if they told me at my child's birth, but they didn't. We have lots of things we had to watch out for, and we need medical alert bracelets, necklaces, etc.

I'm unhappy, and I want my child to have a bracelet/necklace. I'm greatly disappointed; life sucks enough without one of these

Sucks enough being diabetic, epileptic, etc. But it really sucks, when you inflict it on offspring.

I am prone to lyphedema in my left arm after treatment for stage III breast cancer. I wear a silicone bracelet I bought from Amazon that says "No Needles or BP in This Arm". I also was recently prescribed a blood thinner by my cardiologist, and have another bracelet from Amazon that says "Eliquis". I was hospitalized for 3 days at the beginning of January, and the nurses all commented on the bracelets and wanted to know where I got them.

Links seagrass?

I don’t understand why your child can’t have O negative blood? This link has a nice calculator for what blood types children can have based on what their parents have.

Blood type calculator

rob, O- blood is not the rarest, which is AB-. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1112664/blood-type-distribution-us/

OK, I'll try - but when I link anything to Amazon it shows my account info.

Sign out of Amazon first.

Go to Amazon and search for "Medical Alert ID Silicone Bracelet Wristbands"

No medical personage would ever take the information of blood type from a bracelet. If there was a serious now emergency with blood (not common) they would use O negative. Problem not existing. Bracelet information is a heads up but anyone can wear a bracelet.

O positive is by far the most common followed by A and B postive and then AB positive. Negative blood is more rare but AB negative is by far the most rare of blood types. Whole Blood, its parts and plasma are complex. There are tons of antigens. Usually you are going to be supported with saline solution while they type your blood.

Elmer - I honestly don't know how to do that. I use a MacBook and my account just shows up...

So maybe we should use the USB bracelet?

Patriciae_gw is correct. I have O negative as do my two children. I was told they would use that blood type in an emergency if there wasn't enough time to do a blood type test. Because of this, they are always looking for people with this blood type to donate blood.

Always carry a list of your medications & allergies, with your name on it, in your wallet or a post-it note on your drivers license. Adding name & phone # of 2 emergency contacts is also helpful.

Medic alert tags are a good idea esp. if you take blood thinners, have diabetes type 1, or seizures.

While USB's with med info may sound like a good idea, our hospital computers don't like USB's; would stick with necklace, bracelet, or paper info.

We give blood sooner than in the past in trauma, some ground ambulances even carry it, will start with O-neg, until we can crossmatch; would never give a specific type based on a medic alert tag (different in military settings). Transfusion reactions are bad; we do everything to prevent them.

Love to hear people talk about this important topic.

I have attached a card with my medical info to the back of my drivers license with scotch tape.

My hospital uses an app that stores every test result and summaries of each office visit. I can open it with a password and send PDF files to anyone I choose. Hopefully that would work well if I were in another city and could zap them to an ER if need be.

Here in Australia everyone who is a citizen or permanent resident has a Medicare number. It's my understanding that, unless one specifically opted out, the Medicare number now links to records of all your scans, prescriptions, vaccinations, etc. Any ER or hospital here would be able to access those records from your card. A bit of a challenge to privacy, but it would make things a lot easier in an emergency.

@Elizabeth, would that work if you were unconscious? Those are the patients we need medical info fast.

@chisue, nice! On behalf of your local EMS and ED, thank you.

@jmm1837, sounds nice, if I was younger would try to work in the other countries, the US system is so messed up in so many ways.

The US system is messed up, electronic record-wise. Part of the problem being that the world of medicine lagged behind most other sectors in adopting IT and more modern technologies. Larger providers led the way but many others were slow and interconnections weren't a priority. A good example is that hospitals were probably the last customers of the mostly long-gone world of pager users. Electronic medical records and systems needed a final kick in the pants, part of which was given by Medicare charging a penalty starting in 2015 for providers not using electronic records. My primary care physician retired for that reason at that time, citing his refusal to make such a change.

Going the other way, I had occasion a few years ago to go to an Urgent Care facility of a large practice that includes docs and hospitals nearly 500 miles away from home. I signed a number of forms at check in without looking at them. Sometime between then and when I was seen by a doc 15 minutes later, they had downloaded some portion of my health file from the medical school group practice I use where I live. The urgent care doc had that information on the screen in the exam room and asked questions me a number of questions, including whether the list of prescriptions (that I hadn't supplied) was current.

mdln, Does your group use Epic? I feel like we need a centralized system like police agencies use CODIS. I can't imagine how far we would go if we all connected together into the same system. Heck, if nothing else we could cut down on people getting too many opioids. But to be able to help people, because we start seeing symptoms come together over several cities states or systems... That would be amazing.

I guess we all just have to keep in mind that the US is a very large place! There are a lot of things in the works, but I would say on the whole, we're keeping up as well as anybody else. Everybody has their own EHR, but a connected one will be phenomenal.

I guess it's like the world of biobanks. For instance, there's no one biobank across the European Union, but you'll find one in Estonia, world leader, and there's also the UK biobank. But they don't talk to each other. No better than here. I assume their EHRs are the same way.

Yes, Epic.

We now spend more time in front of a computer, than in front of patients. Documenting more for insurance companies reimbursement, lawyers/risk management, and corporate quality measures, than true patient care.

Honestly, I have often heard that. But we have to start somewhere. You and I could talk at length about better ways to get this done. Everyone else just ignore those part. The medical community is working on getting the US up to speed electronically, and how best to do it.

😉

Seagrass, look at the top of the page on the right when you open Amazon. Underneath where it welcomes you by name is Account and Lists. Hit on that and at the bottom of the drop down list you can click to sign out. You’ll have to sign in again to place an order or access your account.

Asking a user group (physicians, especially older ones), who were so broadly reluctant to change to electronic records, how they like using them, is like asking a teenager how much they like doing nightly homework and if they'd like to have more.

Many doctors don't like being told what to do or how to do it, often an ego thing. Paper records in large provider systems were a nightmare. Doctors' sloppy chart practices and record keeping habits were often a nightmare. That's all better now. Among my family are younger ones whose professional lives involve electronic charts. They require a lot of time and sometimes after-hours work to complete. Each has encountered situations where the thoroughness of records that needed to be consulted at a later date was invaluable - I know, they've told me while grousing over a particular day's workload.

I'm sure systems and procedures will improve over time. Docs will continue to fight them but too bad. It's part of what they do for their patients' welfare and benefit, not for themselves..

elmer, there are many older doctors who are happy to use the system. They're brainstorming ways to add things to the record, like pop ups that warn you about genetic conflicts for medication, for instance. While there is pushback, and a lot of people do find it cumbersome, we're making headway.

This is my world. Literally.

Yes, I know. I also know others who continue to grouse, as mdln did just above.

I know this is an old post, but if you are still looking for a medical id bracelet try this one -
https://www.roadid.com/