1.16 EMERGENCY CONTACT TELEPHONE NUMBER

PART OF THE EMERGENCY CONTACT GROUP (1.14 - 1.17)

Definition

Telephone number of person whom patient designates to be primary contact if notification is necessary.

Uses

Contact with and notification of a family member or another significant individual is frequent in the practice of emergency medicine. To protect patient and emergency contact privacy and confidentiality, access to this data element must be limited to authorized personnel.

Discussion

This data element can be used to enter any type of telecommunication number.

Data Type (and Field Length)

XTN - extended telecommunication number (40).

Repetition

Yes; if the patient has more than one emergency contact or an emergency contact has more than one telephone or other telecommunication number, the Emergency Contact Group repeats.

Field Values

See the definition of XTN in the Technical Notes at the end of this document for complete details.

Component 1 is not used except to indicate there is no phone or it is not known whether there is a phone.

Component 2 is the code indicating the telecommunication use.

Component 3 is the type of telecommunication equipment.

Component 4 is the e-mail address.

Component 5 is the country code.

Component 6 is the area code.

Component 7 is the phone number.

Component 8 is the extension.

Component 9 is a descriptive comment.

Example:

Component 6 = (808)
Component 7 = 555-4321
Component 9 = After 6:00 pm

At a minimum, local phone numbers should be recorded in Component 7 in the format 999-9999. Entries are not made in Components 1 - 6 and 8 - 9 when they are not needed. When the patient has no telephone number, enter " " in Component 1. When it is unknown whether the patient has a number, enter Unknown in Component 1.

Data Standards or Guidelines

None.

Other References

None.