A personal emergency response system (PERS) means different things to different people.
Finding the right system to meet your needs and your budget is important as you search for a quality service to help you in your time of need.
Here are ten things you should know before you buy a PERS.
1) What is the average response time? Different companies promise and deliver different response times.
What you want is a company that has an audited response time of less than one minute.
In an emergency every second matters and minutes can be the difference in maintaining and independent lifestyle and becoming dependent on others.
In some cases, precious minutes can mean the difference between life and death.
2) What are the costs of the equipment? Some companies charge a fee for the equipment.
Other companies loan the equipment to anyone who subscribes to their monitoring services.
Others rent the equipment out and that fee is included in the monthly monitoring charge.
Find out how much, if anything, the equipment will cost before you invest in any type of medical alert system.
3) How much is the monthly fee? This is another important factor.
The fee needs to be small enough that you can manage to pay it month after month.
The longer you can maintain your service the longer you will be protected.
There are many excellent and affordable options that are available.
Make sure you invest in one that you can confidently continue to pay month after month.
4) Who will answer your call? This is important.
Some companies offer what is known as an auto-attendant and basically act as a relay service between your home phone and 9-1-1 operators.
What you want for your investment is a liver person on the other end with access to your medical information and contact lists who can make sure you are connected with the right people to give you the help you need in an emergency.
5) Is there are minimum commitment? No one has a certain future at any age.
The last thing you want is to be locked into a long-term contract that you may be unable to fulfill.
6) Is a satisfaction guarantee offered? You need to make sure that you have some sort of recourse to get your money back or out of the contract within a specified period of time if you are not satisfied with the service or quality of the product.
Most legitimate companies offer a guarantee but some do not.
Choose accordingly.
7) How difficult is it to set up the equipment? Plug and play is best by far.
The simpler the equipment is to set up the more likely it is that the equipment will be used.
8) How does the system work? If the PERS service you are considering cannot explain how the entire system works then you need to consider another service.
If the service providers can't tell you how it works, how can you expect it to work? 9) What comes with the system? What are the parts and components? Are they waterproof? How easy are they to use? These are important questions you need to have the answer to before you buy a system or service for medical emergencies.
10) What happens if you have to go into the hospital, a treatment center, or nursing home for an extended amount of time? Will you be able to cancel your contract without penalties? Some companies offer month to month monitoring, some offer quarterly payments, and some require annual subscriptions.
If you believe you need flexibility (and who doesn't), maybe you should consider working with one that offers a month to month option.
Finding the right system to meet your needs and your budget is important as you search for a quality service to help you in your time of need.
Here are ten things you should know before you buy a PERS.
1) What is the average response time? Different companies promise and deliver different response times.
What you want is a company that has an audited response time of less than one minute.
In an emergency every second matters and minutes can be the difference in maintaining and independent lifestyle and becoming dependent on others.
In some cases, precious minutes can mean the difference between life and death.
2) What are the costs of the equipment? Some companies charge a fee for the equipment.
Other companies loan the equipment to anyone who subscribes to their monitoring services.
Others rent the equipment out and that fee is included in the monthly monitoring charge.
Find out how much, if anything, the equipment will cost before you invest in any type of medical alert system.
3) How much is the monthly fee? This is another important factor.
The fee needs to be small enough that you can manage to pay it month after month.
The longer you can maintain your service the longer you will be protected.
There are many excellent and affordable options that are available.
Make sure you invest in one that you can confidently continue to pay month after month.
4) Who will answer your call? This is important.
Some companies offer what is known as an auto-attendant and basically act as a relay service between your home phone and 9-1-1 operators.
What you want for your investment is a liver person on the other end with access to your medical information and contact lists who can make sure you are connected with the right people to give you the help you need in an emergency.
5) Is there are minimum commitment? No one has a certain future at any age.
The last thing you want is to be locked into a long-term contract that you may be unable to fulfill.
6) Is a satisfaction guarantee offered? You need to make sure that you have some sort of recourse to get your money back or out of the contract within a specified period of time if you are not satisfied with the service or quality of the product.
Most legitimate companies offer a guarantee but some do not.
Choose accordingly.
7) How difficult is it to set up the equipment? Plug and play is best by far.
The simpler the equipment is to set up the more likely it is that the equipment will be used.
8) How does the system work? If the PERS service you are considering cannot explain how the entire system works then you need to consider another service.
If the service providers can't tell you how it works, how can you expect it to work? 9) What comes with the system? What are the parts and components? Are they waterproof? How easy are they to use? These are important questions you need to have the answer to before you buy a system or service for medical emergencies.
10) What happens if you have to go into the hospital, a treatment center, or nursing home for an extended amount of time? Will you be able to cancel your contract without penalties? Some companies offer month to month monitoring, some offer quarterly payments, and some require annual subscriptions.
If you believe you need flexibility (and who doesn't), maybe you should consider working with one that offers a month to month option.