If you have a medical emergency which requires an ambulance to come to your home, often the EMS staff have no knowledge of your medical history or the medications you are on.  Having this information can be vital in the approach they take with your immediate medical care. 

Camrose Primary Care Network is pleased to re-new our partnership with Alberta Health Services Camrose Emergency Medical Services (EMS) in bringing you the “Tube of Life” program, a community project focusing on helping you maintain an up-to-date medical history and medication list in case of a medical emergency.

The ‘Tube of Life’ is an initiative which gives EMS staff the information they need.  It’s a compact, plastic cylinder holding a document that you fill in with the details of your medication information and other important directions in the case of an emergency.  Also contained in the Tube is a fridge magnet that acts as an indicator to EMS personnel that you have a Tube of Life in your home, in which case, EMS would immediately know to review the details it contains. Your Tube of Life is stored in the refrigerator on the top right side which makes it simple for EMS to quickly retrieve your information.

“The Tube of Life was one of the first Camrose PCN initiatives undertaken. It has set the tone for what the PCN is about with respect to establishing and maintaining key community partnerships,” says PCN executive director Stacey Strilchuk. “There have been a number of personal testimonials shared with the PCN whereby the Tube of Life has played a significant and positive role in an individual’s care by EMS and St. Mary’s Hospital.”

“The more information we have about our patients, such as what medications they are taking and even a brief medical history, the better decisions we are able to make about how best to treat them during an emergency,” says Andy Potsma, EMS Manager, Central Zone.

If you would like to have a Tube of Life, they are available free of charge during business hours at the Camrose Primary Care Network office in the Edgeworth Centre.  For more information, please visit our Tube of Life page or call (780) 608-4927.