Your emergency contact is probably the person who knows you best.
They know how you take your coffee.
They know that you hate hospitals.
They know your favourite book.
They might even know where you keep your passport.
We assume the person closest to us also knows how to manage our health, but proximity and being prepared are not the same thing.
Let me tell you my experience.
I had to take my partner to the emergency department. He was distressed as the situation demanded, but he could talk.
I knew everything.
His medications and supplements.
The name of the family doctor.
His blood type and allergies.
The last time he ate something.
He even gave my phone number at the reception desk, so I could receive the “digital” ticket.
But, I am a nurse.
And, then I wondered how much of this he knew about me.
What are her regular medications?
I’m not sure.
Any allergies?
Nuts, I think.
Which is the reaction?
Silence.
Who is the regular doctor?
She has the name somewhere.
And suddenly, the person who knows me best is trying to piece together information about my healthcare by memory. Doing so, in the least relatable place, an emergency department.
The question becomes clear: How many of us are in this position?
Our emergency contact is there, but the information isn't.
We tend to think of an emergency contact as just a person. In reality, an emergency contact needs to be a person with access to the right information.
Adding a New Country to the Scenario
To make it more complex: moving countries creates an additional layer to the story.
You don't just move your address, your belongings and your favourite coffee mug.
You move your healthcare too. And healthcare doesn't always move neatly with you.
A prescription might be in one system. Your blood test results in another. Your insurance information somewhere else.
Suddenly, “I know where everything is” becomes:
“I know it is somewhere.”
And somewhere is not particularly helpful in an emergency situation.
The Medical Record Maze
You have a little card with the list of the medications and how to take them on the kitchen counter. The cardiology exams on the hospital App. Recent blood test on your email. The names of your regular doctors on the Notes App. Allergies, you know them.
The problem isn't necessarily lack of information.
It's fragmentation.
Your medical information may be perfectly organized across seven different places or in a 37-page medical dossier, divided by specialties.
But an emergency is a terrible time to start searching for the right information, buried among all the other records that may be far less useful in that particular moment. Emergency information should be brief enough to use and detailed enough to matter.
Your partner knows you. That doesn't mean they know your healthcare.
Regular medications, allergies, insurance, doctor details, blood group, medical history. Would your partner actually know where all of it is?
Mine didn't.
Try this tonight. Give your partner two minutes to find the information they would need if you were suddenly unable to provide it. Don't help them.
If they spend the first 90 seconds asking, “Where do you keep that?”, you have discovered a problem that is much easier to solve today than in an emergency department.
Your emergency contact isn't simply the person who gets the phone call or has to answer all the questions. They may become the person who has to speak for you when you can't. So, it is worth considering them as part of your team.
Your Emergency Contact Is Part of Your Healthcare Team
The best emergency plan is actually to have one.
I didn’t.
Your emergency contact doesn't need to become your doctor. They just need somewhere to turn to.
They shouldn't have to reconstruct your medical history from old emails.
They shouldn't have to remember which specialist you saw six months ago.
And they shouldn't have to work out, from scratch, what matters and what doesn't.
There should already be a starting point.
Someone who knows the story.
Someone who can connect the dots.
Someone who can say: “I know where to look.”
That’s where having someone in your corner can make all the difference.
At Serenity, healthcare isn't treated as a collection of appointments, reports and prescriptions.
It's an ongoing relationship.
Your Family Doctor knows your medical picture.
Your Nurse Case Manager knows what has been happening between appointments.
And the team around you has the context to help make sense of what comes next.
If one day you can't explain what happened, the people helping you don't necessarily have to start with a blank page. They have somewhere to begin.
One relationship. Less to manage. More peace of mind.
Because in a medical crisis, the most valuable information isn't always another document.
Sometimes it's simply having someone who already knows you and your medical history.
A Small Task That Could Make a Difficult Day Easier
Ask your emergency contact:
“If something happened to me and I couldn't speak for myself, who would you call about my healthcare?”
If the answer is “I don't know”, that's worth fixing.
Make sure they know about your Serenity team.
Save the contact details. And keep us updated when something changes in your health.
Because healthcare is a two-way relationship. The more we know, the more effectively we can take care of the bigger picture.
