Health Information Compliance Alert

Providers won't need a computer to access records from this credit-cardsized product.

Medical emergencies engender chaos, which means key patient information often remains unavailable to health care providers. As a result, doctors, hospitals and emergency medical workers can unwittingly pursue courses that are disastrously wrong for the patient, leading to poor outcomes and skyrocketing costs.

But a new product could make obtaining patient records simpler and quicker.

Emergency Medical Information Inc. has launched the EMI 911 rCard, a technology-driven emergency medical service poised to save thousands of lives each year by providing instantaneous access to critical health information for victims of accidents and other medical emergencies.

The EMI 911 rCard holds information such as family contacts, doctors, medical conditions, medications and dosages, and critical allergies.

Extra advantage: Most promising of all, health personnel can instantly read the information from a screen on the rCard, unlike other medical alert products that require special computer software or readers and easily navigate through the data with their thumbs.

"Each year, tens of thousands of Americans die because of hospital error," says Tracy Evans, president of EMI. "In many of these cases, death could have been avoided if hospital personnel had immediate access to the patient's critical medical information. The EMI 911 rCard ensures that doctors, nurses and emergency medical technicians quickly know the patient's allergies, prescriptions and other details to help them make instant, informed life-and-death decisions."

The company is currently taking orders for the rCard from corporations, large member organizations, hospitals and doctor groups. And besides utility there's another reason that patients could find the products attractive. "You can't deny the rCard's 'cool factor,'" Evans tells Eli.