JPNomad

Updated Email Address Jay.Parker at redcross.org

Hi Everyone, I work for the American Red Cross, Service to the Armed Forces "SAF" division. I'm one of the people that call you to get a medical statement and then send out the Red Cross Emergency Communication Messages, also known as an "ECM". Let's see if I can answer some of your questions; The Red Cross is mandated by Congress; to fulfill the provisions of the Geneva Conventions, to which the United States is a signatory, assigned to national societies for the protection of victims of conflict, to provide family communications and other forms of support to the U.S. military, and to maintain a system of domestic and international disaster relief, including mandated responsibilities under the National Response Plan coordinated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). The Health and Human Services realized that HIPAA might cause a problem so they made an exception, "45 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) 164.510(b)(1)(2)&(3)" It's pretty boring so below is a link to the HHS.gov website FAQ's and a short paragraph on HIPAA and the Red Cross. May a doctor or hospital disclose protected health information to a person or entity that can assist in notifying a patient Any Service Member from all the branches, including the U.S.Coast Guard and DOD employees, Oh I forgot, the Merchant Marines too, get to their duty stations, including ships, they are told the only way they can go on Emergency Leave is if an American Red Cross Emergency Communication Message (ECM) is sent and received by their command. The main reason for this is the Military Command uses the Red Cross to Verify there is an emergency. The Red Cross case number is even part of the Emergency Leave paperwork and is not filled out completely until the Red Cross case number is put on it. Question: "Why doesn't the family just call the military command with the info?" The command cannot just take the word of a person that it is a true emergency. Believe me I've had wives call up and say they are a nurse or a doctor or that Dad just had a MI just to get their husband home from the Middle East. I feel for them but that's why the command relies on the Red Cross to verify the emergency with a third party; e.g. nurse, police office, coroner, etc... The command will tell a service member that they cannot go on leave until the Red Cross has verified the emergency and the ECM is received Military commands are not HIPAA exempt, the Red Cross is. See above. The Red Cross has direct communications with military base around the world. Even Submarines, (we send the ECM's by secure link to the Pentagon and it is sent via military satellite to any ship or sub, even if they are under the ice caps. We call bases around the world 24hrs a day 365 days a year. Today I just happen to look at our call volumes for the last month and it was 32,000 incoming calls and 28,000 outgoing. Question: "How do I know it's the Red Cross calling me?" Good question. You can look at the caller ID. It will have either 877-272-7337 or 800-926-6001, but that might not show up especially if we have been transferred a lot. You can always call us back but that serves another problem. There are 4 Emergency Communication Centers in the world. San Diego, Ca; Springfield, Ma; Louisville, Ky and Ft Sill, Ok. When you hang up and call us back, more than likely you will not get me. I then have to log in the case notes that you refused to give any info and place the case back into a Verification Queue. Then my phone line becomes free for another call. When you call us your call is routed to the next Emergency Case Worker, which could be on the other side off the country. What I have done in the past that works well is, I give the nurse the Red Cross Case number and my name and where I'm calling from, have the nurse place me on hold and have he/she call the Red Cross, You can call any one of those above numbers or even the 1-800-REDCROSS number (just make sure you follow the prompts for "Service to the Armed Forces" I think it is option 1.) When you get to an Emergency Case Worker have them pull up the case and my name should be on the case, actively working on it, or you might just happen to get the Emergency Communication Center I'm call from. You have now verified I am who I said I was. Question: "I don't understand how this all works." Let me show you an example: A service member's father had a CVA and was sent to the hospital. The spouse calls us and gives us the service member's name, rank, ssn, deployed address and other vital info, including where we can verify his illness or hospitalization. We then call the hospital and ask the 5 questions the military command wants from us; Diagnosis: What's wrong with the patient? Is it just a hang nail or something else? Prognosis What's the expected out come? If the patient is fine and being discharged in 30min, the military probably won't send the service member home. Current Condition: stable, poor, grave, terminal. Life Expectancy: This is a hard one and we know it, but this is what the military wants. They have to figure out how they are getting the service member home. Are they going to wait until they pull into a port or are they going to helicopter him/her off the ship. Finally, does the doctor/health care provider recommend the presence of the service member? We take all that info and place it in a message and then contact the command. Let's just say it's Germany for example. I would call the staff duty officer of their unit and relay all that info to them. They will ask questions sometimes but for the most part they know we have vetted all the info. The command will then contact us back when the service member has the message. We then contact the spouse stating they are in receipt of the message. This might take some time as they might be in the middle of nowhere in a foxhole communicating via a low power vhs radio. Speed is of the essence. It might take the service member two days just to get to a town with a road. Meanwhile Dad is slipping away. Service members on emergency leave have priority on military flights and can be bumped to the top of the list for standby on commercial flights, if they show their leave paperwork. Sometimes we get calls from the airport just wanting to confirm the Red Cross message. If you have any questions you can ask me or email me and I will try to answer them for you I hope this helps Jay Parker Emergency Case Worker Specialist American Red Cross, Service to the Armed Forces. [email protected]