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Nobody wants to be a John Doe in the emergency room.

Hurricane season is here and preparations shouldn’t end with stocking supplies and knowing where Fido will go during a storm.

Among the bitter lessons from Hurricane Katrina was the destruction of medical records for an estimated 1 million Gulf Coast residents, which has fueled support for electronic medical records and boosted President Bush’s goal that most Americans have them in 10 years.

Private information technology companies are pitching their electronic record systems to consumers with a range of subscription fees. On a separate level, doctors’ offices and hospitals are evolving toward electronic medical records as the new industry standard which is costly and cumbersome due to patient privacy rights and security issues.

To capture a share of the Florida consumer market, one California company is offering its electronic medical records service to Florida residents free during hurricane season. After Nov. 30 when hurricane season ends, those who signed up would have to pay the subscription fee to maintain their electronic accounts.

At the urging of Sen. Durell Peaden Jr., R-Crestview, who is a physician, residents of Pensacola were the first to be offered the free service from MyMedicalRecords.com.

It’s now available statewide to all residents.

The company was founded last year by Robert H. Lorsch, a California businessman who received an “American Spirit” award this past spring from the U.S. Small Business Administration for volunteerism, one of 14 small businesses recognized for coming to the aid of Katrina victims.

“By giving this (service) away to people to use, they will become customers of mine,” Lorsch said of his offering to Florida residents during hurricane season. “If not, I have saved lives.”

Hospital officials in Southwest Florida have mixed views on whether consumers’ personal electronic medical records will help during emergencies.

For those interested in taking the plunge, go to the Web site of MyMedicalRecords.com.

After registering, they will be e-mailed a toll-free “lifeline” telephone number. From there, they need to have their doctors’ offices fax any and all medical records, including prescriptions, allergies and any other pertinent information to the secured toll-free number to be stored in their secured electronic accounts.

Customers can set up folders to organize their records and they choose their passwords. Each account can hold up to 100,000 pages of documents and 2,000 photographs.

“Each family member has a different password and each account is good for up to six people,” Lorsch said. “You can keep photos of your kids and pets.”

Customers also are given a wallet card and stickers so family members or medical personnel can use an emergency password to log on and access an emergency medical record, which is a separate password from the client’s personal password.

Lisa Gardiner, spokeswoman of Physicians Regional Medical Center in North Naples, said physicians have concerns about being asked to fax patients’ documents to these private companies and how privacy is maintained as required by federal law. At the same time, the hospital sees value in this type of service, especially for part-time residents whose medical records are kept with their physicians in other states.

“I think (privacy) issues are a concern and will be a concern but I also think it will be very convenient for patients, not just during an emergency, but when they come down here during season,” said Geoffrey Moebius, chief executive officer of the hospital.

Officials with the NCH Healthcare System say many physicians already have their patients’ medical records stored electronically, similar to the hospitals’ method, and so they don’t fear what happened in the Gulf Coast region would occur here.

“But if the patient is really worried about it and it puts their mind at ease, it might be a good idea,” said Susan Wolff, vice president and chief information officer for NCH.

So far, patients haven’t asked about setting up their own electronic medical records accounts, said Sally Cowan, director of the emergency department at Naples Community Hospital.

In a true emergency, there would be challenges with a patient’s ability to provide his or her password or for the hospital to reach a family member who has the patient’s emergency password to the records, she said.

“I think conceptually, the technology sounds promising, but as in many ways, the devil is in the details,” she said. “It’s a wonderful concept but when the rubber hits the road, there must be an awful lot of education and knowledge.”

Red Cross officials who run emergency shelters question how useful electronic medical records would be following a hurricane when electricity is knocked out.

There’s been no discussion locally about electronic medical records or having computers available to shelter residents, said Deborah Horvath, chief executive officer of the Red Cross of Collier County.

“That doesn’t mean our national headquarters wouldn’t set something up in tents,” Horvath said.

Alan Ball, with the regional Red Cross office in Birmingham, Ala., said that is an unlikely scenario.

“We would have no reason whatsoever to access a person’s medical record,” he said. “We would just be like everybody else, waiting for the community power to get back on. The Red Cross (chapters), in general, don’t have medical personnel other than just (providing) first aid.”