How to be Prepared for a Medical Emergency during Travel

How to be prepared for a Medical Emergency during Travel

Twenty years ago I got a kidney stone while traveling. I was very lucky and I had my insurance information with me and all was well, but after that experience I realized the importance of being prepared for emergencies. I have frequently shared with anyone I know that travels to have their critical information listed under ICE on their phones and on a card in their wallet.  This even prepared me years later when my boyfriend (at the time) had a stroke and I knew he had all his doctors numbers and medications listed on his phone and I was able to call the pharmacy to make sure none of his medication was causing his severe headache so he could quickly get the stroke medication that saved his life!  The following is a great reminder of what you need to do right now to prepare for an emergency at any time.

Travel 911- How to be prepared for a Medical Emergency during Travel. Karcu 17 2015 By Kristina Portilo, CPT, MS

Recently a close friend was experiencing intense side pain that required an unplanned visit to an urgent care. The physician at the urgent care determined the pain was coming from her gall bladder, and the next thing she knew she was in a hospital getting ready for surgery. Did I forget to mention she was 1,000 miles away from home on a business trip when this happened?

This experience left me feeling unprepared. Just like any other traveler, I have experienced my share of colds, flu, migraines and food poisoning, but nothing that landed me in urgent care or in the emergency room. A trip to the hospital during travel was not even on my radar until this happened.

Similar to preparing for other emergency situations, planning is the key to preparing for a medical emergency during travel.  Here are the factors you need to consider.

Emergency Contact

This is the emergency dial screen on my Galaxy S5. The three ICE contacts can be dialed even when my phone is locked.

Every smart phone has the “in case of emergency” (ICE) contact list. This is a list of contacts you select that can be accessed without unlocking your phone. If you are involved in an accident, or taken ill, the ICE contact could provide critical information for paramedics.

Your ICE contact should know:

·         Pertinent medical history and allergies.

·         How to access a current list of your other medical information such as primary care physician, specialists, and medications.

·         How to contact your immediate family and employer.

Choose your emergency contact strategically. It does not have to be a family member but it should be someone who is aware of health concerns or any on-going medical issues. Here are a few tips for setting up the ICE list in your phone:

·         Have more than one ICE contact in case one is unavailable or one is traveling with you.

·         Do not use choose two ICE contacts that could be traveling with you at the same time (i.e.: spouse and child).

·         Include every method of communication you have for each ICE contact (cell phone, work phone, home phone, and email).

Medication and Allergies

Many prescription drugs like warfarin have side effects that could land you in the hospital when mixed with certain foods, supplements, or antibiotics.  To avoid making a medical situation worse, it is critical to know the types of medication you are taking. In addition to medication, you need to remember vitamins, nutritional supplements, and herbal products. Lastly, if you have any reactions or allergies to certain medication or something like latex, make a note on your medication list.

If this is how you travel with your pills, make sure you have documented the type and dosage of each.

If you are traveling, more than likely you will not have the full size medication bottles with you. Here are three ways to document your medications and allergies:

·         Create a gallery in your phone and take a photo of each bottle to show the label including dosage and ingredients (if it has other ingredients).

·         Create a contact in your phone called “medications” and list each medication and dosage in the notes section of the contact. Include this contact as an ICE*.

·         Hand write a list of your medications with dosage information and place it in your wallet.

It is not necessary to expect your ICE contact to have this information memorized, but it is important that your ICE contact knows exactly where to find it. Make sure you share the location or provide them with a copy.

Insurance

Even with the best intentions, it is not a guarantee you will have your insurance card if you have a medical emergency during travel. I took mine out one time to provide my insurance information over the phone before an appointment, it got lost in the shuffle, and I found it at the end of the year when I was scanning receipts. Take a photo of your insurance card and make sure at least one of your ICE contacts has a copy of it. Alternatively, you could create a contact in your phone called ICE-Insurance and enter basic information into your phone.

Travel and Meetings Schedule

Your ICE contact needs to be aware of your travel and meeting schedule.  This is especially important if you do not have an assistant or you are a solopreneur.

If you are in the hospital, your client needs to know as soon as possible that you are not coming due to an emergency, and that you will reschedule when you are feeling better. If you are dealing with an emergency, you are not going to be able to make these calls, but someone will need to. Your health is your main priority, but you certainly do not want to have a “no call, no show” with someone who is a potential customer or who may have already paid you to be there.

·         Make sure someone has access to, or knows how to gain access to, your calendar.

·         Enter specific information on your calendar for appointments including meeting location, contact name, and phone number.

·         Enter your travel itinerary onto your calendar including confirmation numbers. Services like TripIt make this really easy.

After the important issues are hashed out, make sure your ICE contact or assistant calls your airline and cancels or reschedules your return flight. Do not expect the airline to refund your ticket if you are hospitalized, there are no laws requiring them to do so. If you have a priority status, your airline may decide to waive your rebooking fee, but unless you are flying on Southwest you will likely have to pay a rebooking fee.

Start Planning

While we all hope to never actually need to use an emergency medical plan during a business trip, it is a good idea to have all the information in an easy to access location. I designed a simple checklist for you to use to create your emergency medical plan along with a one page document to print. I followed the checklist and it took 20 minutes of my Sunday afternoon to complete. I will gladly trade 20 minutes of my Sunday afternoon now to prevent wasting precious time during an emergency medical situation trying to locate this important information.

Click Here to Download Business Travel Life Checklist for Medical Emergency During Travel Preparation

*When using the ICE function on your phone you may be required to use a number in order for the contact to appear on your lock screen. You do not need an actual phone number, a single number will do.

Providing nationwide nutrition and fitness concierge services, Business Travel Life seamlessly integrates a healthy lifestyle into corporate and business travel . We partner with our clients to provide nutrition plans and workouts that are achievable on the road. Our clients benefit from the customized level of service and ongoing support we provide. Check out our online store before your next trip to shop for healthy travel snacks, travel friendly workout tools, and accessories that make healthy travel easier.

March 18, 2015 Kristina Portillo, CPT, MS

About the author

Kristina Portillo, CPT, MS

Kristina Portillo, MS, is the founder of Business Travel Life. Kristina is a National Association of Fitness Certification (NAFC) credentialed Certified Personal Trainer and Nutrition Coach. There are two things that she has been passionate about most of her life. Travel & Fitness.

Patti Wood, MA, Certified Speaking Professional - The Body Language Expert. For more body language insights go to her website at www.PattiWood.net. Check out Patti's website for her new book "SNAP, Making the Most of First Impressions, Body Language and Charisma" at www.snapfirstimpressions.com. Also check out Patti's YouTube channel at http://youtube.com/user/bodylanguageexpert.

Morning Pages to Start Your Day as a Small Business Owner

Morning Pages to Start Your Day as a Small Business Owner

A morning ritual that I teach to small business owners and use in my small business is to clear your mind of clutter. When you first wake up in the morning, take ideally fifteen minutes to write down anything that is muddying up your head. Write three pages in an easy no pressure stream of consciousness. Write down any thoughts or feelings that are clogging your brain. This is not refined perfect creative writing. It’s musings, lists, to dos, dreams, worries, and sometime just junk. Dump thoughts out on the page the way you dump out the trash. Now your mind is clear and you can accomplish much more in your day. There may be times when you are too busy, but I know that when I am stressed or need to be especially creative I go back to morning pages. I have written three books while doing morning pages.  Screen Writer and Entrepreneur Julia Cameron calls the pages, morning pages and describes the benefits in her book, “The Artists Way.”

I am a professional speaker, body language expert and author. I speak around the country to groups of small businesses owners.

Patti Wood, MA, Certified Speaking Professional - The Body Language Expert. For more body language insights go to her website at www.PattiWood.net. Check out Patti's website for her new book "SNAP, Making the Most of First Impressions, Body Language and Charisma" at www.snapfirstimpressions.com. Also check out Patti's YouTube channel at http://youtube.com/user/bodylanguageexpert.

Patti's Body Language Tips for Banking Interviews

Below are Patti's body language tips for banking interviews that appeared in eFinancialCareers.com from a recent interview she did.

Ex-Barclays VP shares top body language tips for banking interviews

by Sarah Butcher

2 April 2015

Palm to palm

Ferdinand Petra started his banking career as an associate at J.P, Morgan. After four years, he moved to Barclays’ investment bank, where he spent five years as a vice president (VP) in client coverage. Now an affiliate professor of finance at elite business school HEC in Paris, Petra also trains M&A analysts in investment banks and corporates and has run an M&A interview preparation company. If anyone knows about non-verbal communications in financial services, it is, therefore, he.

According to Petra, there are three essential pieces of body language for financial services interview success. We’ve listed these below, supplemented with suggestions from Patti Wood, a body language expert who coaches Wall Street bankers. This is what you need to know.

1. Never project nervousness. Never imply negativity

When you’re sitting in front of an interviewer, you should never play with a pen or fiddle with things – this will simply convey that you’re stressed. Most importantly, when you’re asked a difficult question, Petra says you must be very careful not to manifest the two signs of defensiveness: don’t lean back in your chair and don’t cross your arms or legs (and particularly do not do the two things at the same time).

“Fiddling things is what I call a ‘self-comfort cue,” says Wood. “You sit there, fiddling with your shirt collar, or your watch and what you’re really doing is creating an excuse to touch yourself, which stimulates chemicals that are reassuring to you.” It’s incredibly important that you don’t seek this kind of reassurance when you’re answering questions about your suitability for the job and, says Wood.

Similarly, she says any attempt to protect the ‘windows to the body’ – the heart, chest, neck, mouth, eyes, or hands – can be interpreted as hiding something or holding something in. For this reason, crossing your legs, putting a hand to your neck, or shielding your eyes, are all inadvisable.

2. Anticipate the bodily cues of the people you’re interacting with

“When you stand up suddenly to shake hands, you will give the person who’s interviewing you the impression that you’re not prepared,” says Petra. Instead of waiting seated for the precise moment of the handshake, you need to anticipate the event: be ready, not flustered.

“You need to ease yourself into the handshake,” says Wood. “You shouldn’t be jumping up to shake hands. When you’re waiting for the interviewee, sit down on the edge of the seat in the waiting area so that you can rise easily and confidently.” For the same reason, Wood says you should avoid looking at your phone before the interview. And when the interview’s over, she says you should shake handsbefore you gather up your stuff.

3. There is more to a handshake than you think 

The handshake is all-important, but it is not all. Petra says you need to coordinate shaking hands with two other essential elements: smiling and looking someone in the eye. Practice the ensemble before you go in. “I always get my students to practice this with their friends,” Petra tells us.

Wood says execution of the handshake-eye-contact cluster should depend upon the gender of those involved. Male-to-male handshakes require eye contact of at least three seconds: anything less suggests weakness. Female-to-male handshakes require two seconds’ eye contact, a look away, and then a look back: three seconds of solid staring implies sexual interest; two seconds of staring followed by a glance away and a glance back implies that you’re not coming on to someone, but are prepared to interact robustly with them in a business environment.

All handshakes should also involve full frontal alignment between the parties concerned.”Your body windows need to be aligned to the other person’s,” says Wood. “During a handshake you are saying I trust you, and yet I am threatening your vulnerable areas and you are doing the same to me. You are both sizing each other up and determining who will be alpha.”

Handshakes should also always be palm to palm, says Wood. Women must resist the temptation for ‘finger shakes': “You don’t want to present your femininity first in a business situation. You want to show that you are strong and powerful and unafraid.”

Patti Wood, MA, Certified Speaking Professional - The Body Language Expert. For more body language insights go to her website at www.PattiWood.net. Check out Patti's website for her new book "SNAP, Making the Most of First Impressions, Body Language and Charisma" at www.snapfirstimpressions.com. Also check out Patti's YouTube channel at http://youtube.com/user/bodylanguageexpert.