Three Things To Ask An Emergency Response Service For Seniors

Most people feel a natural terror of being hurt and abandoned without access to help. When seniors are involved, such situations can quickly become life-threatening. Emergency medical response systems provide relief from worry for caregivers, spouses and even seniors themselves in situations where seniors become incapacitated by injuries or a medical condition. But, before choosing from the available medical alarm systems, there are three things you need to ask them.

Is your service a true 24 hour, round-the-clock service? Medical emergencies take place at any time. Any gaps in the service coverage could mean a call that doesn’t get a prompt response. That time matters. Heart attacks often have warning signs and quick action can prevent their occurrence or minimize the damage. Accidents commonly occur in middle of the night when seniors get out of bed still disoriented from sleep. A delayed response can create panic and result in further harm.

Where is your call center located? A service that outsources its call center internationally is not a good choice. Operators could be in a foreign country creating a language barrier between seniors and the operator or between the operator and emergency services. Operators in a distant call center could be unfamiliar with local emergency protocols and medical services. That could mean a life-threatening delay in treatment.

What kind of emergency and medical training do your operators receive? Even though we’d all like to have doctors and emergency personnel on the scene immediately, there is going to be an inevitable delay. This means the first responder on the scene, although via telepresence, is the operator that receives the alert. It’s vital operators have training in first-aid measures, knowledge about common medical conditions and familiarity with frequent drug interactions. They also need to have communications training so to talk seniors through the emergency situation until in-person aid arrives.

Learn more in our frequently asked questions section about Medical Alert System FAQ’s.