Professional Records and designers
of the ER Card.
The ER Card, designed and made by Professional Records Inc. in Coventry, will hopefully reduce the uncertainty of providing care to the elderly and ailing in the case that the patient can’t speak for him or herself in an emergency. It provides constant access to medical information just by making a phone call.
“It provides 24/7 access to medical information whenever it’s needed,” said Maria Gil, one of the owners of Professional Records. “If you go into the emergency room and you don’t have your purse or wallet, the information can be found without them.”
The card, which can be kept in a wallet or purse, on a key chain or shoelace or hang around a patient’s neck on a string, provides patient information including name, address, telephone number, allergies, blood type, doctors’ names and phone numbers, emergency contacts and a list of any medications.
Professional Records, owned by Maria Gil and her sister-in-law Janice Gil, began in 1999 as a record storage company, but was founded for the purpose of the ER Card, Maria Gil said. For the past four years, the company has been conducting a pilot program for the card and its services.
“We’ve spent the last couple of years talking with police, fire and medical personnel, asking them what kind of information they need,” Gil said. “That’s often more important than medical information.” Information like if the patient wears hearing aids, speaks English, or has any kind of mental disabilities or allergies is often information that isn’t available immediately.
Professional Records has designed and patented its own software for the ER Card, and received a grant from the state to conduct a demonstration program based at Kent County Hospital to prove the system works. The Gils are ending their first year of the demo program, and so far have just under 500 people enrolled.
“Janice has worked in the medical field for 35 years,” Gil said. “People just don’t remember their information.” And because there is no sharing of information between hospitals in the state, a patient could go repeatedly to Kent, but one trip to Rhode Island Hospital would mean filling out all the paperwork all over again.
“In this age of technology, the medical profession is the one that still uses manila folders and handwritten notes,” she said.
Each member receives three cards to start and three key cards, but can have as many as needed, Gil said. They also receive stickers, one for the door emergency medical technicians or other medical personnel might enter, and one for their car window. Members are also encouraged to give a card to their emergency contact or family member and keep one in their car glove box.
“There should be a database, but there’s nothing out there like that now,” Gil said of the need for a product and service like this. To access the information, medical, fire or police personnel can first identify from the card or sticker that the patient is a member, and when the patient arrives at the hospital, the medical information is accessed using the member’s name, identification number, telephone number or other family information by calling an 800-number that is staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Professional Records subcontracts the service out through the Rhode Island Medical Bureau.
West Warwick Police Chief Peter Brousseau said that he sees the ER Card as having a statewide application. Instead of having to search for an injured person’s contact information, the card will provide it easily.
“I know a lot of people in town have it and I think it will be a good thing,” Brousseau said. “A lot of our calls are for older people who might be in an impaired condition and with the ER Card, we are able to access their information without having to look through their belongings” searching for an emergency contact or number for a family member.
To become a member, a person only need call Professional Records, Gil said, to either provide the medical information over the phone or schedule a sign-up in person. The member does need however to come in to sign release forms at some point.
“We’ve been to Washington and we’re trying to get Medicare and Medicaid to pay for it,” Gil said of ER Card. “They question the validity of the information because it’s coming from the patient, but no one knows their information better than them. The sign-up takes 10 minutes and we’re taking information (usually) directly from the medicine bottles.”
The ER Card service costs $99 for the year and includes periodic medical updates, which Professional Records conducts based on a member’s medical habits (whether it is annual or monthly). Members are also provided with as many printed-out reports of their information as needed for other occasions. It also helps members to be reminded when they are due for a mammogram or vaccination, Gil said.
“This will minimize the liability to caregivers and reduce medical mistakes,” Gil said of the card. “When I go into the emergency room, the person standing over me has no choice but to save my life but doesn’t even know my name.”
Brousseau said the Gils are planning to present the ER Card at the monthly Rhode Island Police Chiefs Association meeting in order to possibly expand its application in the future.
“It’s a good tool. At some point there will be an incident and the (person’s)
condition will be serious” enough to warrant the use of the card, the chief
added. “I think every police and fire department would benefit from it.”
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