Possible ICE on Florida roads
Sunday, July 24, 2005
The recent bombings in London gave a British paramedic an idea.
The idea was to put a ICE -- In Case of Emergency -- numbers in cell phones.
If the cell phone owner had an accident or medical condition that prevented him or her from telling medical personnel the names of family members to call, the responder could simply look under ICE in the cell phone for the right number.
The ICE idea came from British paramedic Bob Brotchie after the recent London terrorist bombings. When Brotchie responded to bombing scenes, he often didn't know which phone number to call to get important information about the patient.
Brotchie thought it would be a good idea if there was a nationally recognized name for people to file next-of-kin phone numbers under in their cell phones, and the ICE campaign was born.
The campaign is growing. It's circulating throughout the globe, including into the Bay area, through the Internet.
Polk County resident Roger Wise says he plans to program an ICE number in his cell phone.
"I think it's a good idea," Wise said.
But Bob Jackson, a supervisor with Polk County Emergency Medical Services, says he doesn't think the ICE numbers would be of any use to paramedics in the U.S.
"I don't want them (family members) coming to the scene," Jackson said. "We're going to be off the scene quicker (if family isn't there). "And it doesn't help to have extra people on the scene upset, understandably upset, but still sometimes in the way."
And there's another problem. Paramedics have HIPAA laws to follow. Those laws generally prohibit the disclosing of health information to other parties, even family members, without a patient's consent.
"I can't give them information," Jackson said. "I can ask them, but I can't tell them what happened to the patient, by law."
Jackson agrees there are some situations where an ICE number programmed into a cell phone would come in handy, such as when a person has a stroke. Bystanders can contact that person's family.
Jackson also gave another example.
"I had an Alzehiemer's patient who left the house to get cigarettes in Sarasota," he said. "We picked him up here in Haines City. I could call the family and say, 'We have your husband. Where do you live?' Because he didn't know where he lived."
While having an ICE number programmed in a cell phone can't be of help in every situation, some say it also can't hurt. Brotchie, the British paramedic, said he's already heard of success stories where a programmed ICE number helped emergency workers gather important information about a patient quickly.
