I was asked to take a look at CareLink for medical emergency alerting for someone I know who may be able to get some good use out of it, so I figured I would do a post on what I’ve found.
What does personal emergency alerting/response technology look like today?
Generally speaking, personal emergency response systems (PERS) have a base as the main unit and pendent or small devices that can be worn to communicate with the base. Generally, the base can communicate via RJ-11 phone line (i.e. landline) or via a cellular connection to dial out for help with the landline being cheaper from a monthly fee standpoint. Speaking of the monthly fees, most of the setups I’ve read about are monitored by call center-type services in case an emergency occurs (response time within 2 minutes) which do bill on a monthly basis.
What are the key features to look for in terms of both services and hardware/technology?
- Does the system detect falls?
- Does the system enable two-way verbal communciation?
- Does the system detect carbon monoxide, fires or smoke?
- Is the system monitored through a dedicated service or does it go straight to 911?
- Does the system monitor fitness or movement activity?
- Does the system have GPS?
- How many pendants are provided (assuming there’s a home with more than one user)?
- Include Cellular?
What kind of costs should be expected?
- Device cost
- Usually an up front or one time fee if signing on to a service
- Monthly service fee
- This can be broken out by feature (i.e. falls detection could be an additional $10 per month) depending on the device compatability
- One time activation fees apply to some services outside of the device fees
- Generally, landline services are less expensive than cellular services
- Most seem to be between $25 and $50 per month depending on what features are chosen
What does CareLink have and how does it stack up?
Reviewing Southwest Medical’s page, which is a geographically local hospital to the user we’re thinking about. Southwest Medical partners with VRI and offers CareLink branded devices.
Landline recommendation with fall detection: CL32
- Does the system detect falls?
- Yes
- Does the system enable two-way verbal communciation?
- Yes, at the base
- Does the system detect carbon monoxide, fires or smoke?
- No
- Is the system monitored through a dedicated service or does it go straight to 911?
- Monitored by VRI
- Does the system monitor fitness or movement activity?
- No
- Does the system have GPS?
- No
- How many pendants are provided (assuming there’s a home with more than one user)?
- Unknown, assuming 1
- Include Cellular?
- No
Cellular recommendation with fall detection: CL-52
- Does the system detect falls?
- Yes
- Does the system enable two-way verbal communciation?
- Yes, at the base
- Does the system detect carbon monoxide, fires or smoke?
- No
- Is the system monitored through a dedicated service or does it go straight to 911?
- Monitored by VRI
- Does the system monitor fitness or movement activity?
- No
- Does the system have GPS?
- No
- How many pendants are provided (assuming there’s a home with more than one user)?
- Unknown, assuming 1
- Include Cellular?
- Yes