Before You Are Named the Emergency Contact, Ask Each Office What It Will Do With Your Name

Being named the emergency contact sounds like a small favor. In practice it is the point where a pharmacy, a utility, a bank, a clinic, or a building office starts calling you about a man who has already said no. Before you say yes, find out what each office will do with your name, what it will tell you, and how you get your name taken off.

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Ask each office the same five questions

Call the offices where Dad has the most contact and ask: what does your system record for an emergency contact? Will you share information with that person, and under what conditions? Do you need Dad's written permission to add me, or to share anything with me? How do I change or remove this entry, and who is allowed to do it? What happens if you cannot reach him and you call me instead?

Separate being a contact from having authority

A name on a form is not the same as a right to make decisions for him. Offices differ on what they will discuss with a listed contact, and they differ on what they will do with that contact. Whether you have authority to act for him is a separate question that depends on documents and state rules. Ask each office what it requires, and take questions about authority to a licensed professional rather than relying on the form to answer them.

Write the answers down before you say yes

Keep one page for each office with the office name, the phone line, the form you signed, the answers to the five questions, and when you were added. Keep that page with the notebook you use for his appointments, so the next person who calls can see what was agreed.

Let Dad choose the entry where he can

If Dad is willing, let him make the choices: which name goes on the form, which phone number is used, and in what order people are called. A decision he made is easier to live with than one made for him, and it gives you a clearer answer when an office asks whether he agreed.

Next move

Pick the three offices that call Dad most often. Before you sign any form that names you, call each one, ask the five questions, and write the answers on one page, then keep that page with his appointment notebook.