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.

GPS and other new fangled Phones for Seniors

I am regularly, being asked to review new products and technologies to help clients safe in their homes. Vendors, visit me. I travel the world looking.I also attend trade association meetings including the American Telemedicine Association, and I'm on the Board of the Medical Alert Monitoring Association. New technology fascinates me. Some have great promise. Others duds.

As I write this blog, I am reminded of a letter we received this week with a returned medical alarm unit. The letter explained that our medical alarm had been delivered to the Senior, one an hour too late. Unfortunately, The client fell, required hospitalization, and ended up in a skilled nursing facility. The client is not expected to return home, and therefore the family member was returning the unit.. The point I'm trying to make is, if your loved one needs our services, (or any other senior safety product) don't procrastinate. Order today. A year too soon, is better than a minute too late.

One of the best products I've reviewed recently include the Jitterbug (www.jitterbug.com) cell phone for seniors. This is a cellular phone specifically designed for seniors. Big buttons, easy to see and push. Continuous dial tone, so it acts like a regular phone, and a comfortable loud speaker system. I think this is a winner, and bought this service for my mother.I am pleased to recommend it to clients. This is not a substitute for a medical alert system. I looked another cell phone with GPS tracking built in. The manufacturer boasted it helped track down, and save a lost dementia patient. I would argue the dementia patient never should have been allowed to wander the neighborhood. They could have been hit by a car. Powerful technology, but buttons way too small and complicated for seniors. When I tested the unit, it sent out the wrong address.Another limitation was an 18 hour battery life. I saw another product, that claims to be a medical alarm that will dial 911, without a monthly fee. One of our long term clients bought it this week for her husband, because it saved the monthly fee. I think this product, has some serious drawbacks when compared with a professionally monitored system. For example, the manufacturer claims the product is splash resistant. With a high probability of senior falls in the tub or shower, I don't want splash resistant. I want waterproof. If the device can't be worn in the shower or tub forget about it. Free monitoring sounds like it could turn into a costly mistake. Dialing 911 is great... if you are able to communicate. My experience suggest, the clients in trouble, may be unable to speak for themselves. Without communication 911 will dispatch police to investigate. In a medical emergency this is a waste of precious time. When the senior falls, we need to get them help immediately. The first hour is called the Golden Hour. Help received in the Golden Hour is the difference between continued independent living, and a nursing home or death. Our operators can relay all the critical client information, medical, personal, and lockbox codes to allow paramedics immediate access to the clients home. Not a bad deal for a buck a day. Last this product was the size of a cell phone. Not exactly the product grandma wants hanging around her neck.

New Technologies for Senior Safety

I am constantly searching for new technologies and approaches to keep our clients safe in their homes. I have scoured the planet, visiting Israel, Europe, and investigating products from Taiwan, China, and our neighbor to the North Canada. Some of these new products have great promise. Others look like fancy technology in search of an audience. All of the products can enhance safety, some greatly, others minimally. As I write this blog, I am reminded of a medical alarm unit we had returned this week. It arrived via FEDEX to a client. But it was an hour too late. The client fell, required hospitalization, and ended up in a skilled nursing facility. Sometimes, our units are returned , never opened, because the clients have expired before FEDEX arrives. The point I'm trying to make is, if your loved one needs our services, ORDER THEM IMMEDIATELY. A year too soon, is better than a minute too late. Some of the products I've reviewed recently include the Jitterbug (www.jitterbug.com) cell phone for seniors. This is a cellular phone specifically designed for seniors. Big buttons, easy to see and push. Continuous dial tone, so it acts like a regular phone, and a comfortable loud speaker system. I think this is a winner, and bought this service for my mother, and am pleased to recommend it to clients.

Medical Alert Technology from Israel

I have just returned from two weeks in Israel. I visit at least once a year in support of Friends of the Israel Defense Forces (www israelsoldiers.org) and Shurat Hadin (www.israellawcenter.org), an organization that sues terror organizations to break their backs financially . I also go to investigate new breakthroughs and business opportunities in medical alert technology. Israel is a small country, about the size of New Jersey. It has two natural resources, (a) minerals from the Dead Sea, and (b) brainpower. There are thousands of interesting technologies developed in Israel, Some of the products we are involved with include a Dick Tracy style watch phone with GPS developed by Aerotel (www.aerotel.com) Another wristwatch device measures blood pressure, EKG, pulse oxymetry, temperature, etc. and sends this wirelessly back to a monitoring station. This was developed by medic4all, (www.medic4all.com) These devices are in widespread distribution in Israel and Europe, and are starting to be sold in the US. Our rigorous FDA approval process usually delays the US adoption 18 months on average. Other exciting products include medical alarm systems made by Visonic, including medical alarms, automatic fall detectors, and bluetooth wireless medical monitoring devices. See (www.visonic.com) .My company, Pioneer helps introduce some of these products to US markets. Many other Israeli breakthroughs provide benefits here, such as the pill camera. You swallow the pill camera, and it transmits pictures as it navigates through your digestive tract, non-invasively. givenimaging.com)

Medical Alert / Triple System Redundancy

I write this post from Los Angeles after midnight. My family has evacuated from Del Mar CA today as a result of the San Diego Fires. Our home lies directly in the path of the firestorm in a neighborhood bordering Rancho Santa Fe. At a time like this I am reflecting on what I could have done better to reduce the risk. First, the customer alarm monitoring center is totally safe and secure.It was never at risk. Our monitoring center is owned by Acadian Ambulance Services and located in Lafayette, LA 1500 miles away. Acadian is the largest privately owned ambulance company in the country. Acadian wrote the book on redundancy. And they weren't afraid to rewrite it with lessons learned after Hurricane Katrina. Acadian is run by a former Westinghouse engineer who believes in triple redundancy. Acadians monitoring center was built to withstand 170mph winds, and has back up generators to power the facility for weeks in the event of a power failure. The dual telephone and power feeds are underground. The Acadian building also houses the 911 backup center for the county. During Hurricane Katrina a 3rd party backup monitoring facility was in place in Michigan...just in case. Acadian staff slept at the facility, and manned 100 phone lines throughout Hurrican Katrina. This was accomplished while they operated the triage center at the New Orleans Superdome. rescued infants and elderly from facilities throughtout the state. They were credited with saving 7000 lives. In the Spring (07) Acadian bought another monitoring facility 240 miles from Lafayette in Houston ,TX. The two facilities (Lafayette and Houston) continuosly back each other up. And just in case,the Michigan center is the third back up.. Before we evacuated Solana Beach, I made one phone call to Blane Comeaux VP of Acadian Monitoring. Blane instantly agreed to handle all customer service needs. We forwarded all phones to Acadian, who continued to instantly live answer our telephones, and handle customer service needs immediately. We packed our vehicles, grabbed emergency earthquake supplies and left town in a hurry. At this point in time, I'm pleased to report, our valued customer were 100% unaffected by our San Diego disaster. Our sales calls were patched to our sales associates in Florida.(( Christy , our sales manager. was busy writing orders for new customers medical alarms until she was forced to evacuate her own house in Solana Beach, and reluctantly turned the sales over to Art . and Roberta . in Florida.)) Other employees had to evacuate their homes as well.
Before we evacuated we removed the computer servers and locked the fire proof safe. We evacuated our family, two German Shepherds and two cats. Please keep us in your prayers as the firestorm was three miles from our homes and closing distance. We won't know for a few days if we will be fortunate enough to have a home to return to, In the course of evacuating we made two other stops, and abandoned those locations after they became dangerous as well. We also stopped in to see my son Matthew, and his girlfriend Michelle at Caltech in Pasadena.
Thanks to my dedicated staff and the excellent professionals and disaster experts at Acadian Ambulance.

Medical Alert Videos

While my son was home from college (Caltech) this summer he updated our website
www.pioneeremergency.com , and convinced me that I had to leave the comfort of the Stone Age, and it was time to start creating this blog, and to make videos. I knew nothing about blogs and videos. I am not a techie. Not accustomed to hearing "no," he pulled out the video camera, wrote a script, and sat me down on the living room couch, and the camera started to roll. If these videos look like they were made by total amateurs, in the privacy of their homes, it's because they were. I think this was the first time my son used the camera. I've done several TV interviews before, but always with real cameraman and real TV interviewers. None came with scripts. Anyway, we hope the videos will be helpful to the audience. Please notice one of my German Shepherds walking through the film shoot. Her first film. Next time, I'll try to look straight at the camera.

Medical Alert Video

Medical Alert Lock Box Video

Medical Alert Videos

While my son was home from college (Caltech) this summer he updated our website
www.pioneeremergency.com , and convinced me that I had to leave the comfort of the Stone Age, and it was time to start creating this blog, and to make videos. I knew nothing about blogs and videos. I am not a techie. Not accustomed to hearing "no," he pulled out the video camera, wrote a script, and sat me down on the living room couch, and the camera started to roll. If these videos look like they were made by total amateurs, in the privacy of their homes, it's because they were. I think this was the first time my son used the camera. I've done several TV interviews before, but always with real cameraman and real TV interviewers. None came with scripts. Anyway, we hope the videos will be helpful to the audience. Please notice one of my German Shepherds walking through the film shoot. Her first film. Next time, I'll try to look straight at the camera.