What Is an Emergency Information Card? (And How to Make One Free)

An emergency information card is a small, printed card that lists the medical facts a stranger would need to help you in an emergency: your name and date of birth, your medical conditions, your medications, your allergies, and the people to call. You keep it where a first responder will find it — in your wallet, and often a larger copy on the refrigerator — so that if you can't speak for yourself, the card speaks for you.

It goes by several names — an ICE ("in case of emergency") card, a medical ID card, an emergency contact card, or a medical information card — but they all solve the same problem. The first minutes of a medical emergency are the ones where you're least able to answer questions and the ones where the answers matter most. A card removes the guesswork for a paramedic who has never met you.

Why carry one when your phone has a Medical ID?

Because a phone can fail exactly when you need it. It can be locked, dead, shattered, or left in another room, and not every responder thinks to check it. A printed card needs no battery, no password, and no internet — a responder can read it the moment they open your wallet. The two work best together: a phone Medical ID for quick lock-screen access, and a printed card as the backup that always works. We compare the two in detail in emergency card vs. phone Medical ID.

The idea of a printed emergency contact is old and deliberately low-tech. The US government's preparedness program, Ready.gov, publishes a fillable family communication card for each household member to carry, with their contacts and medical information written down. An emergency information card is that same idea focused on your medical details — kept on paper so it works when a phone doesn't.

Exactly what to put on an emergency information card

Keep it to the facts a responder acts on in the first ten minutes — nothing more:

• Full name and date of birth. Confirms who you are and lets a hospital pull your records.
• Medical conditions. The diagnoses that shape how you're treated — heart or kidney disease, diabetes, a seizure disorder, a lung condition, cognitive impairment.
• Current medications and doses. Anticoagulants, insulin, and heart or seizure medications in particular change the right treatment; being on a blood thinner, for instance, changes how a bleed or head injury is handled — see our blood thinner emergency card guide.
• Allergies. Above all drug allergies — this is the "do not give me this" line that stops a second emergency from starting in the ambulance.
• Emergency contacts. Two people, their relationship to you, and phone numbers.
• Doctor and preferred hospital. Speeds up records and, where possible, routes you somewhere that already knows you.

What to leave off

An emergency card is a medical document, not a wallet's worth of identity. Leave off anything that helps a thief more than a paramedic: no Social Security number, no insurance or policy numbers, no bank details, no alarm codes. A hospital collects insurance later; a paramedic never needs it. Because a fridge copy sits in plain view, this rule matters even more there — see what to put on a fridge emergency card.

Wallet card, fridge card, or both?

Most people should have both, because responders look in two predictable places:

• The wallet card is checked when you're out — after a fall, a collapse, or a car accident. Keep it wallet-sized behind your ID.
• The fridge card is checked at home. Under the decades-old Vial of Life program, US fire and EMS agencies ask residents to keep their medical information on the refrigerator, and responders are trained to look there. A fridge card is usually printed larger (about 5" × 7") so it's readable at arm's length.

The two hold the same information in two formats. That's the practical case for a tool that fills both from the details you enter once, instead of hand-copying a blank template twice.

How to make one — free, filled, and private

You can download a blank PDF template and hand-write it, but the common failure modes are predictable: it ends up blank, out of date, or too hard to read under stress. Most free templates online are exactly that — an empty form you print and fill by hand.

The free card generator takes the details you type and produces a filled, print-ready wallet card and a matching 5" × 7" fridge card — free, with no signup. The part that matters for a document this sensitive: everything you enter stays in your browser. Your medical information is never uploaded to a server. You're not handing your medication list and diagnoses to a website — the card is built on your own device and downloaded straight to you. That's the difference between a generator you can trust with health data and one you can't.

Type your information once, download the PDF, print it, and put the wallet card behind your ID and the larger card on the fridge. Then review it whenever a medication or diagnosis changes — an out-of-date card can mislead a responder worse than no card at all.

Frequently asked questions

Make your emergency information card now

The free card generator covers every field above, prints a wallet card and a fridge card from a single form, and stores nothing on any server — everything stays in your browser. For the exact wording to use on each line, see what to put on a medical ID card.