Medical Alarm Monitoring

There are lots of sites on the Internet where you can purchase a medical alarm. From looking at these sites it is often very hard to figure out which sites are "real" and offer a service that you can trust to look after your mother, grandmother or loved one. When contacting a medical alert company, most people ask about the price (most are similarly priced between $25 - $28) or the range of the button (almost everybody uses equipment from the same one or two suppliers).

Where these companies really are different is in the monitoring center that they use. First, realize that there are some products that believe that you don't need to pay for monitoring and should just have the medical alert device notify you directly and you'll take care of it. Really? Your loved one falls or has an incident and needs help as fast as possible and you want the device to try and locate you while you are at work, in the supermarket, driving, sleeping...basically doing anything other than being ready in an instant to help. While you want to be notified, you want a 24/7 facility with trained agents and back-up servers and redundant telecommunications and generators, etc. as the first line of care.

So, assuming that you have chosen a company that offers monitoring, how do you differentiate between them? A few simple questions will help you make an informed decision

1. Do you own the monitoring center? The difference between a company that sells medical alarms (a marketing company) and a company that provides medical alarms (a company that you want caring for your loved one) is whether or not they own their own monitoring center.
2. Is the monitoring center UL Listed? You can either choose a monitoring center that the company says is high-quality or one that has been certified by the leading company for safety and compliance certifications.
3. When my mom pushes the button, are you going to put her on hold if you have to call EMS or me? The last thing that anyone in an emergency wants is to be left alone. Make sure that your medical alarm provider has someone stay on the line with the customer at all times.