Archive for December, 2009

Choosing a home medical alarm provider is an important decision. Ensure that you are well educated on the various home alarm products and personal emergency response systems available on the market and are comfortable with your choice. You should consider the following to help ensure you and your loved ones receive the highest level of care from your home medical alarm provider.

1. How long have they been providing Personal Emergency Response services?

In the home medical alarm industry, experience is vital. Understanding best practices in customer service and emergency response takes time. Look for a company with at least 10 years experience in the industry with a proven track record. Our monitoring service has over 25 years experience in the alarm monitoring business.

2. What medical alarm qualifications and standards are in place to ensure that customers are well cared for?

Providers should have monitoring Centers that are UL certified (Underwriter’s Laboratories). No auto-attendant on phone system. A live care specialist will answer the phone 24 hours a day. We also have an audited response time of under 30 seconds.

3. How the Emergency Response Operators are trained?

Training is important, as care specialists are the people who respond when the personal help button is pressed. Our care specialists have gone through extensive training and certification process. At MedFirst Alert, we us an unprecedented Two-Way Voice/Audio Verification technology which is state of the art.

4. Is there access to customer service and technical support 24 hours a day, 7 days a week? Ensure you can receive the support you need, when you need it. At MedFirst Alert, we not only offer extended business hours but our customers also have access to emergency customer service and technical support so we can answer your questions 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, even on holidays.

5. Am I paying a fair price for the service that I am receiving?

It is always important to know what you’re paying for a senior home alarm monitoring service compared with the value you will receive for these services.

MedFirst Alert’s pricing is industry competitive amongst national providers. We may not always be the cheapest but we can guarantee that our service and caring attitude will always be outstanding.

According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC) there are a few startling results you should know about Traumatic Brain Injury if you or someone you love is elderly. Preventing Brain Injury Factsheet

Fact 1:

People over the age of 75 account for the highest rate of hospitalization and death related to TBI.

Fact 2:

Falls are the primary cause of traumatic brain injuries.

TBI can be mild, moderate, or severe. Regardless of the severity of the condition if you suspect traumatic brain injury you need medical attention right away. Anyone who is taking blood thinners and receives a bump on or blow to the head should see a physician immediately regardless of whether or not they are experiencing any of the symptoms that are commonly associated with TBI.

Prevention is almost always the best cure. If your goal is prevent TBI you’ll definitely want to go to great lengths to prevent slips and falls among the elderly in your life. Since falls are the number one cause of TBI among the elderly you’ll want to do these things to make falls less likely.

1)   Exercise. Exercise is about so much more than building muscles, losing weight, and staying in shape. Did you know that exercise also helps improve balance? You don’t have to do high impact aerobics to help you prevent falls. Tai Chi is an excellent choice for improving balance and providing a little bit of tone and mild strengthening.

2)   Shoes. Wearing shoes that provide good support, fit well, and have non-slip soles will greatly reduce your risk of slips and falls. Also avoid walking around in socks or slippers as well as going without shoes altogether.

3)   Shed a little light on things. Good lighting is important because it will help the elderly see potential obstacles or hazards. Even installing nightlights in hallways and bathrooms can help avoid slips and falls during times when they can be particularly troublesome.

4)   Eliminate clutter. Even if this means you need to go to the expense of hiring someone to help out with housekeeping duties it’s important to minimize clutter that could be a tripping hazard. It also helps to minimize steps whenever possible for normal daily tasks by having items that are used often well within reach.

5)   Check vision frequently. Among the elderly poor eyesight can be a huge problem. It’s hard to avoid obstacles and hazards if you can’t see them. In addition to lighting it’s important to have good vision.

These are small but vital steps to take when your goal is the prevention of traumatic brain injury among the aging. You can’t always prevent falls from happening. Make sure there is a second line of defense in place through a medical alert system to protect the ones you love if the unthinkable should happen.

Transmitters and Battery Life

The pendant and watch style transmitters contain lithium batteries. Lithium batteries lose about 1% to 2% of their power per year.  This means that after 10 years they should have 80% of their initial power minus any discharge due to normal use. In other words, it’s going to last a long time.  Probably much longer than you will have a need for your home medical alarm.

HOW DO I KNOW WHEN THE BATTERY IS LOW?
Each transmitter sends a battery status each time it is activated to the receiver. The console knows when the battery is low and will alert the user of the low battery.
If you are ever in doubt that your home medical alarm form MedFirst Alert is not working, simply call us toll free at 1-800-595-0718 and we’ll take care of the rest.  Your safety and security is our number one job.

Our Pendant and watch style transmitters are water resistant up to 60 feet. We stand behind our products and will replace free of charge any transmitter damaged  by water in normal use.

Transmitters are not intended for constant exposure to water for extended times or exposure to high temperatures, chemicals, strong soaps, cleaning agents, solvents, etc. Normal everyday activities such as bathing, laundry, and cleaning dishes will be just fine for your pendant or wristband.  Always remember to test the unit on a regular basis to make sure it is still working.

We are here to help with all of your medical alarm needs.  Please call us or send us an email if you have any questions.  We would love to hear from you.

Caring for elderly parents may feel like being stuck between a rock and a hard place sometimes. On the one hand this is the person you love who has loved you through thick and thin throughout your life. On the other hand the care giver from your childhood is now in the position of the one being cared for. It’s a type of role reversal that may be met with more than a little bit of unhappiness on the part of the parent who is frustrated with new physical limitations not to mention loosing a huge sense of independence and autonomy.

What can you do to make the transition a little easier for everyone involved?

1)   Go to great lengths to make your elderly parent feel like a welcome addition to your home. More importantly, make your parent feel like a contributing member to your home. This will do more things than you’ll realize at first to benefit your parent. First, it will give them a sense of purpose rather than feeling like an unwanted addition to the household. Second, it will help ease the tension to keep your parent busy (and away from the highly coveted remote control).

2)   Eliminate hazards from the home. Making your home a safe haven for your elderly parent is a great way to make your parent feel welcome. You want to make sure that there are grab bars in the bathroom, clear pathways in the hallway and living room for greater maneuverability, and remove any clutter that could provide a trip and fall hazard.

3)   Encourage good healthy habits. The trick is in finding a way to do it without sounding judgmental or parental. Remember that your parent still views you as the child. He or she isn’t likely to take too kindly to suddenly being ‘parented’ by you. Instead try to get your parent to help your child with exercise or eating good foods. You’ll be amazed at how well the grandchild card works.

4)   Offer plenty of privacy. Privacy is golden for your parent. While your parent may need some sort of supervision he or she also needs a little time alone on occasion to help sort through emotions.

5)   Get access to community organizations like the National Family Caregivers Association that exist to offer help for those who care for the elderly and aging. They have some amazing resources in place to help the process as painful as process for you and the parent you’re caring for.

Do these things and you’ll enjoy a much smoother transition for you and your parent. Also realize that if you can’t be there to care for your parent every minute of the day a medical alert system provides an excellent second line of defense if something happens to your parent while you’re away.

This may be one of the most difficult roles you’ll ever play in life. It will be difficult for both of you because in some ways your roles are reversed in a physical capacity but there remains the fact that you are the child and your parent is the parent. It makes for some interesting times that may be emotionally trying but are almost guaranteed to be emotionally rewarding as these are moments you’ll never get back if you miss out on them.

Take Care of Yourself

You’ll be in no condition to take care of an elderly parent if you’re in bad shape physically, mentally, or emotionally. According to the National Family Caregivers Association, depression among caregivers is quite common. Do self screenings for signs of depression often and get help (not only professional help but also help for the care giving duties you face) when necessary so you can be in a better frame of mind for the elderly parent you’re caring for.

Let Others Know of Your Responsibility

There are actually quite a few medic alert bracelets that will identify you as a family caregiver in case something should ever happen to you. This should give you some degree of peace of mind to know that your parent will be looked in on and cared for if you are incapacitated and unable to do so yourself. If you have friends and other family members that are aware of your responsibility you can go one step further by implementing a disaster plan that calls upon others for help if something does happen to you.

Encourage Independence in Your Parent

It’s one thing to take care of your aging parent. It’s quite commendable in fact. It’s another thing entirely to do everything for your parent. That, to some degree, will take away whatever independence is left for them. You may need to prod sometimes to get them to do things that were once so simple and now are quite difficult but the rewards will be better self esteem for the parent and a lighter work load for you. Even fostering the ability to get dressed, brush hair, and pour coffee will save you countless hours in a week.

Ask for Help from Friends and Family when Needed

Everyone needs a break sometimes. You need to be able to take a night off every once in a while to go out and do a little living of your own. Go out and enjoy a night on the town. See a favorite movie. Get a manicure. Have a date. Do something fun and frivolous to escape the physical and emotional toll that caring for an aging parent can have over you.

During those times when you’re away be sure to provide an added system of support with a medical alert system. This will be the eyes and ears around the home when you aren’t there and a system to notify you of any problems that arise.

Many aging parents find the idea of maintaining independence to be of vital importance. You aren’t ready to give up on living even though you realize that you might need a little help along the way. There is no reason you shouldn’t be able to continue living on your own as long as you have these five things covered.

1)   Mobility. You must have some degree of mobility in order to be able to care for yourself. Even if your mobility is limited it is possible to care for yourself without the assistance of others.

2)   Safety. This one thing actually covers a wide range of real estate. Safety is about physical safety but includes the neighborhood you live in, the condition of your home, your physical health, and your mental alertness. If any of these are suffering you might need to rethink your determination to remain independent or, at the very least, the location where you plan to be independent.

3)   Support System. Do you have friends, family, or a church or civic group nearby that will act as a support system? How about medical facilities, transportation, and health care providers? How about house cleaning, cooking, yard work, and general maintenance? It takes a village these days to do so much more than just raise a child. What kind of support is at your disposal?

4)   Help sorting through and understanding your medication. Some people use patient or elderly advocates to help with the confusing medications that are sometimes required to treat various maladies associated with growing old. If you have family nearby chances are your family will help. Whether it’s coming up with a great pill box that helps you take the right medications at the right time or phone call reminders letting you know when to take which medications it’s important that you get your prescriptions right. Did you know that according to the New England Journal of Medicine the number one reason for hospital readmissions is a failure to take medications are they are prescribed?

5)   Access to help when needed. Chances are that when an emergency arises you’ll be nowhere near a phone. A medical alert system can help you get immediate access to help whenever you have a slip or fall and in countless other emergencies so keep it in mind as you plan for your independence.

Proper planning is, above all else, the key to maintaining your independence as you age.

Not all elderly patients have the luxury of family nearby. Some of them have discovered themselves to be particularly vulnerable during times when the ability to move quickly is needed. If you have an elderly family member or loved one you need to discuss the importance of a disaster plan. It doesn’t matter if you live a few minutes, a few hours, or half a world away.

Fire

Not only do you need an escape route for your elderly parent in case of a fire but also a plan for what comes next. Your parent needs to quickly get in touch with you, emergency services, and then a plan to put into place to deal with insurance and any other paperwork that goes along with the aftermath of a fire. The first, and most important thing you need to do is go over a quick escape route from each and every room in the house. Make sure that all exits are frequently checked for repair (windows open and hallways or doorways remain uncluttered) and are valid escape routes.

Burglaries

While no one wants to think of this happening it’s a definite possibility no matter how safe the neighborhood your parent lives in may be. Alarm systems can be a great deterrent for those who would break in. It is important that your parent knows how to use the alarm, uses the alarm, and has a plan in place for what to do if a break in occurs while your parent is in the home.

Natural Disasters

These are sometimes disasters that are difficult to prepare for. Some of them offer little warning while others provide a little more notice. Whether your parent is going to potentially be the victim of flooding, tornadoes, hurricanes, brush fires, or earthquakes have a plan in place to escape to safety and notify you that all is well or is not well as the case may be. Knowing what to do and what to expect will not only help everyone have peace of mind in the event of an emergency but will also give your parent a sense of purpose during this time when others are helplessly trying to figure out what to do.

Health

A medical alert device can be a life saver in a health crisis. Seconds matter sometimes and getting a voice on the line that will help your parent do what needs to be done in the first seconds of a heart attack or stroke to prevent further damage or minimize the impact of these things is well worth any price you’ll pay for the service.

Having a plan for disasters seems like such a small thing but the impact goes much further than just knowing what to do. A sense of purpose in moments of chaos can be a driving force and save lives by keeping a calm head.

Ask yourself or a loved one these questions to determine if a home medical alarm is needed.

• Are you alone for extended hours during the day or night?

• In the past year, have you fallen, been light headed, been nervous about falling, or been at risk in your home?

• Have you been hospitalized or to the emergency room in the past 6-12 months?

• Do you have at least one of these diseases: heart disease, stroke, COPD, osteoporosis, diabetes, or arthritis?

• Are you on different types of medication daily?

• Do you require assistance from a nurse, caregiver or friend with at least one of the following activities; bathing, dressing, or cooking?

• Would a home medical alarm provide peace of mind for you or for your loved ones?

• How important is it for you to continue to live independently?

• Do you have problems walking or do you depend on  wheelchair, walker or cane?

YES, our Medical Alarms are portable!  All you have to do is  call us when you are at your new home or location and we will update your account information. We’ll test the alarm to make sure you will be safe and secure.