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.