At sometime in life, whether it's your mom, dad, aunt, uncle, family, or a friend... life can become difficult.
Mom could fall and not be able to call for help. Aunt Tillie's arthritis could flare up not allowing her to get out of the tub. Dad could slip in the shower and not have a Button to push for help. Uncle Joe could have a heart attack and not have a Button to push to get help.
Most of our family members, or us, wait until an emergency occurs before getting a medical alert device. Some refuse to use a system even after their first incident and therefore have the same fall, heart attack, stroke, breathing difficulty... or whatever kind of threat... yet again... with no way to summon help…because the can't reach the phone for help to dial 911.
Here's the problem. Once a senior has fallen and waited hours for help to find them…they lose a portion of their self-confidence. By the time someone has fallen multiple times without immediate help…they start to become a different person…they become frail and sometimes afraid.
The best time to protect a loved one with a medical alert device (Top 5 Sites) is prior to any problem. I have become a young senior myself and I now stay safe with my own Button. It's the smart thing to do.
A loved one can remain living independently in their own home far longer by having a Button to push that will get them help when they need it most.
What to look for in a medical alarm monitoring center.
1. Do they own their own monitoring center or do they contract out?
There are great privately owned monitoring centers and there are great contracted monitoring centers. There are lousy private and contracted monitoring centers. What you should really be trying to find out is are they a good certified monitoring center.
Here's the rub. Everyone is making claims of why they are great. As a civilian in this industry... can you tell who is telling the truth?
2. What quality are your operators?
Your monitoring Center should be committed to providing the highest quality customer service possible. This includes a comprehensive customer service training program designed to teach the operators how to handle all situations. This program must include a quality control system such as operator evaluations and daily performance reviews. All operators should have the calls recorded and reviewed on a daily basis.
3. How are their operators trained?
Your monitoring center should have a comprehensive training program designed specifically for medial alarms. This includes a certification for all operators who handle Medical accounts. The training program teaches the operator how to handle all medical situations. The goal is to ensure that medical emergencies are handled at the highest level of importance and quality. If someone needs medical assistance the operators must have the confidence and training to handle all emergency situations with the utmost accuracy.
4. How many operators do you have?
Does it really matter? Your monitoring center should have systems in place to allow controlled growth. This should include a Call Management System (CMS) that monitors the call flow traffic and projects staffing needs. The monitoring center will use this data to project the staffing need for each shift based on time intervals. Heavy traffic periods should have the staffing to control it.
5. How is your monitoring center certified?
Is the Center UL listed, FM approved and Department of Defense cleared. These agencies certify our monitoring center and ensure through annual inspections that the monitoring center meet stringent requirements. An example of these requirements are to ensure full redundancy of all systems which means that if a system fails a back-up system is implemented immediately and automatically. Back up power generators and UPS systems are another requirement that provides the monitoring center with the ability to automatically transfer from city power to generator power automatically. There are numerous requirements that a monitoring center must meet in order to hold all three of these certifications. Monitoring centers that can achieve all three of these listings are best prepared for any situation and can ensure that they will not go down and will be available to handle your emergency when you need them no matter what the circumstances are. Very, very few centers in the United States meet all three certifications. We would recommend you use a UL Listed monitoring center as a bare minimum certification.
6. Are your operators always there to answer the phone?
Does your monitoring center answer all in-bound calls in two rings or less and by a live person no matter how busy they are?
How to choose the correct medical alert equipment?
It is confusing to decide between systems...and there are new players on the block claiming to have been around forever. They have also opened multiple sites under multiple names, making a variety of claims.
If companies say they can do things that no other company can do...I would question this. Most good companies have equal equipment and have good service. It's not about the equipment. It's about the follow-up service. There is a lot of work for a medical alarm company to do to make sure all bases are covered.
Your best bet is to go with your gut. How did you feel when you spoke to the company? See the banner at the bottom of the page for a company we highly recommend.
