Medicines and medical devices

Make a care summary

One page, on paper, that a stranger could act on. Keep a copy with your documents and one in a go-bag.

• Each person's name, date of birth, conditions and allergies
• Every medicine: name, strength, dose, time of day, and what it is for
• Every device: make, model, settings, supplier phone number
• Doctors, pharmacy, health card or insurance numbers
• Who to call, and who can make decisions if the person cannot

Keep enough on hand

Ask your doctor and pharmacist how to keep an emergency supply of essential medicines without running into refill limits. Aim for at least two weeks beyond what you need day to day, and refill when you have a week left, not a day. Check expiry dates twice a year.

Medicines that need to stay cold

Insulin, some injectable medicines, some eye drops and some liquid antibiotics are stored in the fridge. They do not all behave the same way when they warm up, and some are ruined by freezing, which matters in a house with no heat.

Ask the pharmacist these questions for each one, and write the answers on your care summary:

1. How long can this exact product be out of the fridge, and at what temperature?
2. How would I know if it has been damaged?
3. What happens if it freezes?
4. If mine is spoiled, how do I get a replacement during an emergency?

The FDA publishes emergency guidance on insulin storage, linked below, but it comes with exceptions. Your own product's instructions and your diabetes care team come first.

To keep medicine cool without a fridge, use an insulated bag or small cooler with cold packs, and keep the medicine from touching the ice directly. Put a thermometer in with it. In a freezing house, the problem flips: keep medicines in the room you are living in so they do not freeze. See medicine cooler cases on Amazon.

Powered medical devices

Oxygen concentrators, CPAP and BiPAP machines, home dialysis, feeding pumps, nebulizers, powered wheelchairs, stairlifts and adjustable beds all stop when the power does.

For each device, find out:

• How many watts it draws. It is on the label or in the manual.
• Whether it has a built-in battery and how many hours it truly lasts. Test it.
• Whether the maker sells a backup battery, or approves running it from a power station.
• What the non-powered fallback is. For oxygen that usually means backup cylinders from your supplier.
• What to do if it stops. Ask the supplier and the care team, and write it down.

With the watts and the hours per day, the backup power guide shows how to size a battery. A CPAP without its heated humidifier, for example, will usually run several nights on a mid-sized power station.

Tell people before it happens

• Your power company. Many keep a list of customers with medical equipment. It may get you earlier warning. It does not guarantee your power comes back first.
• Your equipment supplier, who may have an emergency plan and a 24-hour number.
• Your local fire department or emergency office, if someone could not get out of the home without help.
• A neighbour or relative who will check on you.

Know your point to go

Every backup has an end. Work out when yours is, and decide now where you will go before you reach it: family outside the outage, a hospital, or a shelter with power. Go early, while travel is easy and you can explain what you need. For someone on life-sustaining equipment, a long outage with no end in sight is a reason to relocate on day one, not day four.

The person who gives the care

If you are the caregiver, the plan has to work when you are tired, sick or stuck somewhere else. Make sure one other person knows where the care summary is and how the equipment works.