The Medical Layer Most Family Emergency Plans Never Include

By Aaron Asay, PA-C, DMSc

I’ve been in the room when a disaster happens and a family is completely prepared in every way except the one that suddenly matters most.

An elderly parent is evacuated from an assisted living facility, but the family doesn’t know where she was taken.

A child with a complex medical condition lands in an unfamiliar ER two states away from the specialists who know his history, and the physician treating him has almost nothing to go on.

A house floods or burns, and the binder containing the family’s medication lists, medical records, and important documents is still sitting on a shelf inside it.

Every one of these situations creates unnecessary chaos. And every one is preventable.

Most family emergency plans do a good job answering questions like: Where will we meet? Who will we call? What goes in the go-bag?

What they often miss is the medical layer: the information that needs to follow a person when an emergency separates them from their home, pharmacy, doctor, caregiver, or normal healthcare system.

The good news is that building this layer doesn’t require a lawyer, a giant binder, or an entire weekend.

Give it one Sunday afternoon.

Here’s the checklist I’d want my own family to have.

1. Start With the People Who Need to Be Called

Your emergency contact list should include more than family members.

For each person in your household, document the healthcare contacts someone might need if you couldn’t make the call yourself: primary care provider, relevant specialists, pharmacy, and other essential members of the care team.

For a child, make sure another trusted adult knows where this information is stored. If an elderly parent lives separately or in assisted living, know who at the facility should contact you during an emergency—and have a backup contact in case you can’t be reached.

The goal is simple: nobody should have to start searching for phone numbers while someone you love is already in crisis.

2. Create a Written Medication List

This is one of the simplest things you can do, and one of the most useful.

For every person in the household, write down:

• Medication name
• Dose
• How often it’s taken
• Who prescribes it
• Which pharmacy normally fills it
• Important medication allergies

Keep one copy with the person or in the go-bag and another with a trusted emergency contact.

Don’t rely exclusively on your phone or an online patient portal. Phones die. Passwords get forgotten. Internet access disappears.

An unfamiliar clinician or pharmacist can do much more with an accurate medication list than with, “I take a little white pill for my blood pressure.”

If you’re also working on how much of your regular medication to keep available for disruptions, talk with your prescriber and pharmacist about an appropriate buffer supply for your specific prescriptions.

3. If Your Child Has Complex Medical Needs, Ask About an Emergency Information Form

This is one of the preparedness tools I wish more parents knew existed.

The American Academy of Pediatrics and the American College of Emergency Physicians developed the Emergency Information Form (EIF) for children with special healthcare needs.

Think about a child with congenital heart disease, a serious seizure disorder, severe asthma, or another condition where an unfamiliar emergency physician needs more than a diagnosis on a chart.

The EIF is designed to put critical clinical information in one place: diagnoses, medications, allergies, specialist information, and other details an emergency team may need to understand the child quickly.

If your child has a complex health condition, ask their pediatrician or specialist whether an EIF or similar emergency care document is appropriate.

Build it with the clinicians who know your child before you’re standing in an unfamiliar ER trying to reconstruct years of medical history from memory.

4. Name the Person Who Can Speak for You

Healthcare proxies and advance directives tend to sound like documents we only need to discuss with elderly parents.

They’re not.

Every adult should know the answer to a basic question:

If I couldn’t communicate my own medical decisions, who would I want speaking for me?

Talk to that person. Make sure they’re willing to take that responsibility. Then complete the appropriate healthcare proxy, power-of-attorney, or advance-directive documentation for your state and make sure the people who may need it can access it.

This doesn’t have to be a frightening conversation about the end of life. It’s simply making an important decision calmly, while you’re able to make it yourself.

5. Make a Separate Plan for Anyone Who Can’t Simply Grab a Bag and Leave

An elderly parent in assisted living, someone with limited mobility, or a family member who depends on powered medical equipment needs another layer of planning.

If someone you love lives in a facility, ask:

What happens during an evacuation?

Where could residents be transferred?

How and when are families notified?

Who is my point of contact if normal communication systems are disrupted?

If someone depends on oxygen, a ventilator, CPAP, or another powered medical device, talk with the equipment supplier about backup options and contact your utility to ask what medical-need or medical-baseline programs are available in your area.

6. Don’t Forget the Pets

Pets need a small medical plan, too.

Keep your veterinarian’s contact information, a list of important medications, vaccination information, and any relevant medical needs with the rest of your emergency information.

And know where your pet can go if you have to evacuate. Not every shelter, hotel, or temporary housing option will accept animals.

This section doesn’t need its own giant binder. It just needs an answer before you’re loading the car.

7. Store the Plan Somewhere the Emergency Can’t Destroy It

A beautifully organized emergency binder that burns with the house isn’t much of a backup plan.

Keep copies of important medical information in at least two locations that aren’t the same building.

That might mean:

• A physical copy in your go-bag
• A copy with a trusted relative or emergency contact
• A secure digital or cloud backup

The people who would actually need these documents should also know where to find them.

Your medication list, healthcare proxy, your child’s emergency medical information, and other essential records only help if they’re accessible when normal systems aren’t.

Your Family Emergency Health Plan Checklist

If you do nothing else, start here:

□ Emergency contacts and healthcare providers

□ Current medication and allergy list for each family member

□ Emergency Information Form for a child with complex medical needs, if applicable

□ Healthcare proxy or advance-directive information for adults

□ Plan for elderly, disabled, or medically dependent relatives

□ Basic medical and veterinary information for pets

□ Copies stored in at least two separate locations

Across the disaster medicine work I’ve done, I’ve seen the same gap repeatedly: families have prepared for what might happen to the house, but not always for what happens when the disruption reaches a person.

That’s not because families don’t care. Most were simply never told what information they should have ready.

This kind of preparation doesn’t replace your physicians, pharmacists, specialists, or other healthcare providers. It helps preserve those relationships and the information they’ve built with you when you suddenly find yourself outside your normal healthcare system.

So give yourself one Sunday afternoon.

Write the lists. Have the conversations. Make the copies. Put them where the right people can find them.

Most emergency plans tell your family where to go.

A family emergency health plan makes sure the medical information they need goes with them.

Aaron Asay, PA-C, DMSc, is a disaster medicine practitioner and PA working with the Jase Medical Response team. This post is for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical or legal advice. Requirements for healthcare proxies, advance directives, emergency medication access, and utility medical programs vary by jurisdiction and individual circumstances. Consult the appropriate licensed healthcare or legal professional for guidance specific to your situation.

Medical Preparation 101 for Seniors: What Happens If You Can’t Get Your Medications

You’re on Medications Now. Here’s What Happens If You Can’t Get Them

By Cayla McGrath

This is the conversation that’s happening on the pickleball court, on the deck of a cruise ship, at dinner with friends your age. Not in a panicked way — more like the math you run in the back of your head that you don’t always say out loud.

What if I can’t get this medication? What if there’s a disaster, a supply chain issue, a pharmacy that closes, a weekend when I can’t reach anyone? Two years ago, you didn’t take anything. Now you take three things you can’t skip.

That’s what makes this a different conversation than the one your 35-year-old kids are having about emergency preparedness. They’re thinking about water and a go-bag. You’re thinking about the lisinopril, the levothyroxine, and the statin, and what happens if those stop.

Here’s the honest answer — and it’s more manageable than the question implies.

Layer one: the prescriptions you already take

The single most useful thing you can do right now: ask your prescriber and pharmacy for 90-day fills on every stable chronic medication.

For most people on stable, long-term medications, this is an easy yes. It means less time at the pharmacy, one trip per quarter instead of one per medication per month, and a meaningful buffer if something goes wrong. Many insurance plans cover 90-day fills at the same or lower cost-sharing as monthly fills, particularly for mail-order.

The step beyond that: ask about a year’s supply. For stable, non-controlled chronic medications, prescribers can often authorize coverage for twelve months. Most patients don’t know this is possible. Many prescribers write monthly by default because that’s the convention, not because it’s required. It’s worth asking.

While you’re at it: write down every medication in the household — drug name, dose, prescriber, pharmacy — and keep that list somewhere you can find it. Paper, not only in your phone. The battery dies. The phone breaks. A paper list in your wallet or go-bag stays accessible when electronics don’t. Any pharmacist anywhere can work with a written list and a prescription bottle, even if your regular pharmacy is closed.

Layer two: the infections you don’t see coming

A longer chronic medication supply addresses the prescriptions you already take. It doesn’t cover what happens when you get sick in a situation where your primary care doctor isn’t reachable.

A UTI on the first day of a river cruise. A skin infection the weekend the urgent care closes for a holiday. A respiratory infection in a small town without a clinic open for three more days.

These are the scenarios that a JaseCase covers — common acute bacterial infections, prescribed by a licensed provider who reviews every request and writes every prescription. It’s emergency use only, for situations where you’ve tried to reach a provider and can’t. It’s not a replacement for your doctor. It’s what’s already on the shelf when your doctor isn’t reachable.

The medications in a JaseCase — ciprofloxacin, azithromycin, metronidazole, and others — cover the most common acute infections. For people over 65, there are drug interactions worth knowing about, which is exactly why every request is reviewed by a licensed clinician rather than filled automatically. The JaseCase isn’t a box of antibiotics — it’s a clinician-reviewed prescription for your specific situation.

To learn more about JaseCase, visit Jase.com

A note for adult children reading this

If you arrived at this article because you’re thinking about your parent rather than yourself: the two layers above apply directly. Help them get 90-day fills on their chronic medications. Help them write the medication list and put it somewhere accessible. Ask whether a JaseCase makes sense for the situations where they’re traveling, spending time at a second home, or otherwise away from their regular care.

The concern you’re managing — what happens if they can’t get their medications — is legitimate and addressable. The answer is building the supply before the scenario, not hoping the pharmacy is open when it matters.

Why medication comes first

Most emergency preparedness guides put water, food, and shelter at the top and medication near the bottom, if they mention it at all. We think that’s backward.

For most adults over 55, a five-day supply chain disruption is manageable without extra food stored. A five-day gap in thyroid medication, blood pressure medication, or anticoagulation is not. The stakes of missing a medication are orders of magnitude higher than the stakes of eating from the pantry for a few extra days.

Medication first. Everything else after.

Cayla McGrath is a content strategist with Jase Medical. This post is for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. Always consult a licensed healthcare provider before making changes to your medication regimen or adding any new medication.*

First Aid Kit Essentials: What Every Home and Family Needs

The First Aid Guidelines Changed in 2024. Your Kit Probably Didn’t.

By Aaron Asay, PA-C, DMSc

This is not a shopping trip. It’s a fifteen-minute audit of what’s already in the box under your sink — and for most of it, the action is taking things out.

In 2024, the American Heart Association and the American Red Cross released the first full revision of the first aid guidelines since 2010. Fourteen years. Most of the checklists people find online still reflect the 2010 standard. Most of the kits sold in retail stores still ship with products the updated guidelines no longer recommend. And most households have no idea any of this changed.

There are four things worth knowing.

One: The aspirin dose is not what you think

Here’s the scenario I want you to sit with: someone’s chest hurts at the kitchen table. You’ve heard your whole life that you give them aspirin. So you go to the cabinet and grab the baby aspirin bottle, because that’s the heart one.

The dose in the 2024 guidelines is 162 to 325 milligrams, chewed, not swallowed whole.

That is two to four of those 81mg tablets. For a suspected heart attack, the instruction is: call 911 first. Then give aspirin — 162 to 325mg, chewed. The chewing matters because it speeds absorption. Swallowing a single 81mg tablet whole is not the right action, and plenty of first aid kits don’t contain enough tablets even if you know the correct dose.

Check what’s in your kit. Know the dose before you’re in the scenario.

Two: Hydrogen peroxide and rubbing alcohol don’t belong on open wounds

Both are still packaged in retail first aid kits. Both have been in medicine cabinets for generations because that’s what our parents used. The evidence has moved past them.

Hydrogen peroxide and isopropyl alcohol are cytotoxic to the cells involved in wound healing. Applied to an open wound, they damage the tissue trying to repair itself. The 2024 guidelines are explicit: clean an open wound with soap and clean running water. That’s it. If you have peroxide in your kit, take it out. It doesn’t belong on a cut.

Three: A commercial tourniquet is now on the Red Cross minimum kit list

For decades, tourniquets occupied an awkward space in first aid training — associated with military and trauma medicine, not household preparedness. That positioning has shifted. The 2024 guidelines add a manufactured tourniquet to the minimum contents for a standard first aid kit.

The key word is manufactured. Improvised tourniquets — belts, rope, shoelaces — are inconsistently effective and can cause additional injury. A commercial tourniquet (CAT, SOFT-T Wide, or similar) is designed specifically for the purpose and applies the right pressure reliably.

For life-threatening extremity bleeding, the protocol is: call 911, then apply the tourniquet two to three inches above the wound, tighten until bleeding stops, note the time. Don’t remove it. The emergency services take it from there.

Four: Naloxone — it’s over the counter now, and it’s not on the kit list

In 2023, naloxone (Narcan) became available over the counter in the United States. The 2024 first aid guidelines don’t add it to the minimum kit contents — but they acknowledge it exists, and the decision of whether to include it is a household-level judgment call.

Here’s the calculus: if your household includes someone who takes opioid medications — a post-surgical prescription, a chronic pain medication, a substance use disorder treatment — the presence of naloxone is worth thinking about. It reverses opioid overdose. It has no effect if opioids are not involved. The risk of having it in an unnecessary situation is essentially zero.

For opioid overdose: call 911 first. Then administer naloxone — nasal spray, one dose, wait two to three minutes. If no response, a second dose. The emergency services take it from there.

If you’re looking at this as a household decision: the argument for including naloxone is not that your family member will overdose. It’s that neighbors, guests, or strangers in a public setting might, and you’re equipped to respond in the minutes before EMS arrives.

The prescription layer

A first aid kit handles what happens to your body from the outside: cuts, burns, bleeding, sudden cardiac events. It holds nothing for the conditions your family takes medication for, and it can’t cover the acute bacterial infections that happen during the same stretch of time when your urgent care is closed and your doctor isn’t answering.

That layer is the JaseCase — common acute bacterial infections, prescribed by a licensed provider who reviews every request before writing a prescription. Not a first aid kit. Not a replacement for your doctor. The part of medical preparedness that first aid training was never designed to address.

To learn more about what the JaseCase covers, visit Jase.com

The audit

Open the box. Check the expiration dates — most sealed items have a two to five year shelf life, and a kit that was put together in 2018 and never opened has several items that need replacing.

Remove the peroxide. Check the aspirin count (you want enough for two to four tablets of 162-325mg). Confirm there’s a manufactured tourniquet if you want to meet the current Red Cross minimum. Decide about naloxone.

Fifteen minutes. Most of it taking things out and replacing what’s expired. That’s the audit

Aaron Asay, PA-C, DMSc, is a disaster medicine practitioner working with the Jase Medical Response team. This post is for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. In a suspected cardiac or overdose emergency, call 911 immediately.*

Epinephrine & Inhaler Refill (Back to School)

The September Asthma Surge Is Real. Here’s Why You Need to Act in July.

By Cayla McGrath

This is one of the few pieces we write that has an actual deadline.

Every September, pediatric asthma hospitalizations spike. The surge accounts for 20-25% of all childhood asthma hospitalizations in a given year, peaking approximately 17 days after Labor Day. The timing is not a coincidence: school resumes, viral respiratory illnesses start circulating, allergen exposures change, and — critically — the summer months are when controller medication adherence is at its annual low. Kids who were managing fine all summer hit September with poorly controlled airways and a new set of triggers.

If your child has asthma or uses epinephrine, the time to act is now. Not the week before school starts. Now.

Two separate problems

The back-to-school prep for a child with asthma or a history of anaphylaxis involves two distinct tasks that families often run together: documentation and supply. They have different timelines, different contacts, and different failure modes.

Documentation

For asthma: a written Asthma Action Plan, completed and signed by your child’s provider. This is what the school nurse needs to manage your child’s asthma and know when to escalate. Without it, most schools can’t administer the rescue inhaler during the school day.

For anaphylaxis: a Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Action Plan (or equivalent) and, in most states, a Self-Carry Authorization Form — a physician-signed document that allows your child to carry their own epinephrine auto-injector at school. The specific form varies by state. Some districts require it to go through Section 504 — a formal disability accommodation process — which has its own timeline. Check your district’s requirements now, not in August.

Section 504 is worth understanding briefly: it’s a federal civil rights protection that entitles students with disabilities (including well-controlled asthma and allergies) to reasonable accommodations at school, including the right to carry and self-administer medications. If your child doesn’t have a 504 plan and needs one to manage their condition at school, the process takes time. This is not a form to submit the week before school starts.

Supply

Two issues to address separately:

Epinephrine auto-injectors: Request two. Between 10 and 36 percent of anaphylactic reactions require a second dose of epinephrine because the first dose doesn’t fully resolve the reaction. Standard guidance from allergists and emergency medicine providers is to have two doses available. That means two auto-injectors prescribed and filled — one to stay at school, one with the child or in the family’s go bag.

Albuterol: There is an ongoing shortage of albuterol metered-dose inhalers (MDIs). If you’re having trouble getting a refill, ask your provider or pharmacist about albuterol inhalation solution — the liquid form used with a nebulizer. This is a different formulation than the MDI, but it’s the same medication. The nebulizer route requires the equipment (compressor machine, tubing, and mask or mouthpiece), which some families already have and some don’t. If this is a new option for your household, start early: getting the equipment, learning the setup, and making sure your child is comfortable with it takes more than a few days.

Heat and storage

Epinephrine degrades with heat. A car on a summer day can reach 130°F or higher — temperatures that significantly accelerate epinephrine breakdown. Don’t leave auto-injectors in a car. Keep them at room temperature, ideally below 86°F.

If your child leaves an auto-injector in a backpack during a hot outdoor activity or a car ride, it’s worth knowing: the medication may not perform as expected if it’s been heat-exposed repeatedly. Inspect the viewing window — epinephrine should be clear and colorless. Any discoloration or cloudiness is a reason to replace it.

Recently expired epinephrine: replace it, but understand the nuance

if it’s expired, replace it. Don’t use “it still probably works” as a reason to put off a refill. The whole point of back-to-school prep is to have reliable, non-expired medication in hand before your child needs it.

Undesignated school stock

Approximately two dozen states have laws allowing schools to stock undesignated epinephrine — meaning the school has auto-injectors on hand for students who don’t have their own or whose auto-injector isn’t accessible in an emergency. The specific form varies by state: some stock traditional auto-injectors, some stock nasal epinephrine (Neffy), which requires no injection.

Know your state’s law. Know whether your school has undesignated stock. This doesn’t replace your child having their own auto-injector at school — but it’s relevant information for understanding what backup exists.

The timeline

Start the documentation now: Asthma Action Plan, Food Allergy Action Plan, Self-Carry form, Section 504 if needed. These require provider sign-off and, for 504, a school meeting. July timelines leave room for delays.

Fill the prescriptions now: two auto-injectors, albuterol (and nebulizer solution if MDI is unavailable). If anything needs a prior authorization, insurance appeal, or alternative formulation conversation, better to have that happen in July than the week before school.

The September surge happens every year on the same timeline. The families who make it through without a hospitalization are usually not the ones with better-controlled asthma at baseline — they’re the ones who did this prep in July.

JaseCase is built around the everyday bacterial infections that happen year-round. It doesn’t include epinephrine or asthma controllers — those are medical devices and controller medications that require individual provider relationships and specific management plans. The principle is the same, though: knowing what you have, knowing what it covers, and taking action before you’re in the scenario.

To learn more about what the JaseCase covers, visit Jase.com

Cayla McGrath is a content strategist with Jase Medical. This post is for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. Always consult a licensed healthcare provider before using any prescription medication.