Medical Alert Monitoring Secrets

The purpose of this blog is to explain to the layman how to tell the difference between a first class monitoring facility for medical alarms, and a lesser service. The points of differentiation, include (a)staffing, b) training, (c) primary mission, (d) technology, (e)track record and (f) back up plan. Let me start by saying having any medical alert system is better than none in place. Like any industry, we have good competitors. As a founding member of the Medical Alert Monitoring Association, I can tell you the senior market is growing. Growing markets also attract new players with unproven track records. This guideline should help you ask the right questions to increase your confidence in whoever you chose.
(a) STAFFING is a primary consideration when operating a monitoring center. Many security alarm companies dabble in medical alarms and use the same personnel for monitoring security systems as well as medical alarms. The problem here, is security systems require very quick dispatch calls. Each operator can handle several thousand security systems efficiently and quickly. If the alarm activates, a quick call is made to the premises to verify the alarm as false/actual. A medical alert is not a quick process. When the alert activates, the medical alert operator might need to remain on that call with the customer until help arrives...ten minutes or maybe longer. A second operator might be needed to dispatch the authorities, while the first operator keeps the client calm, and reassures them help is enroute. The bottom line is it requires double the number of operators to handle the medical alarm workload as compared to security alarms.. Of course, this doubles the labor expense. Putting a medical alarm customer on Hold is not an option for a medial alert monitoring center. Seconds count and literally mean life or death.(b) Staff TRAINING is important in any business. When lives are at stake, it is more critical. All medical operators, of course, should be 100% trained before they handle live calls. While this may seem like common sense, its not always standard procedure.In fact, The Central Station Alarm Association (CSAA) has a standard requiring this and other qualifications. If the central station meets the standard, it is awarded the prestigious 5 Diamond award. If the prospective monitoring center doesn't 100% train the staff members before handling actual emergencies, in my humble opinion, they should be in another industry. There are a hundred + CSAA 5 star stations. There are a thousand + stations not certified.Other industry standards include UL listing, which while not directly related to medical monitoring, provides additional third party assurance that the facility, monitoring and staffing meet stringent insurance industry guidelines for fire and burglar alarm systems. A UL listed monitoring center would also be on my guideline checklist. (c) What is the PRIMARY MISSION of the
monitoring location. If it is a true medical alert monitoring facility, staff members should be familiar with medical terminology, and understand the critical importance of allergies, and medical history. The monitoring staff members also have to be empathetic. as we are dealing with frail and elderly clients in distress. Our monitoring operators bring three unique characteristics. First, they are Southern and flawlessly polite and patient. Second, the operators are employed by the largest private ambulance country in the country. They speak in the language of medical emergencies. There are over 2000 employees, including over 1500 that are medically trained. There are paramedics on duty at the monitoring center 24/7. Last, our operators are employee-owners of the company. This reduces staff turnover, and greatly increases employee accountability.(d) TECHNOLOGY is important at any monitoring center. Todays monitoring centers are continuous upgrading to keep up with advances in technology. We employ special phone lines that boost our audio signals, and make our two way voice systems sound louder, and hear better. Our special lines, provided by AT&T improve the quality of our audio performance by 25-30% over competitors. The phone lines are also self healing in case of outages, and all our systems are programmed to automatically dial multiple numbers to route around telephone line problems. I haven't mentioned about our equipment. It is made in the USA, and built for us by a manufacturer with 30 years of proven performance. (e) TRACK RECORD We have been installing and monitoring systems since 1979. This is not a sideline. I've seen medical companies have come out of the wood work on the internet with experience measured in days not decades. The next month they are gone. Tens of thousands of clients rely on our monitoring centers' expertise. (f)Secondary BACK UP centers are important when clients rely on you for their life safety. We have learned lessons from Hurricane Katrina, the wildfires in Southern California, blizzards, tornadoes, power outages, and terrorist attacks. A back up monitoring center is no longer luxury. it is a requirement. Every piece of monitoring equipment, also needs a spare ready to go on line instantly without missing a beat. This includes back up power generators, UPS systems etc. Today, I believe every monitoring station should have a back up station, with a redundant live database, and it should be located hundreds of miles away from the primary center. This eliminates the a natural disaster from knocking the monitoring center out of service. This is not paranoia. One major competitor learned this lesson the hard way, when their primary and secondary stations in Florida were both adversely affected by a hurricane. Our primary monitoring station is located in Lafayette, Lousiana. Our secondary center is at an undisclosed location in the Houston, TX area. A third disaster recovery center is in Michigan. As always, I hope you are better informed by this long winded blog, and if you have any questions please go to our website Pioneer Medical Alarm, or call us at 800 274 8274.