Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, June 26, 1990 TAG: 9006260041
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: E-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LARRY LIPMAN COX NEWS SERVICE
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Long
She pushed a button on a small box hanging like a pendant around her neck. Minutes later an ambulance arrived and took her to the hospital. After two months, she returned home last week.
Without the emergency response button, Ross said, "I would have laid there until God knows when."
Like roughly 300,000 other elderly or disabled people Ross, 72, used the emergency response system to summon help when she was unable to dial 911.
Until now, emergency response systems generally have been privately financed, although certain charitable institutions provide them through hospitals. But some federal and state officials see ERS as a cost-effective way of allowing many elderly and disabled people, who otherwise would need expensive nursing home or in-home care, to live relatively independent lives at far less cost.
Massachusetts covers the cost of ERS for those eligible for Medicaid, and 14 other states have federal waivers allowing them to provide ERS to Medicaid beneficiaries. These states are California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Maine, Montana, New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Rhode Island and Wisconsin.
Now the staff of the Senate Committee on Aging, under instructions from chairman Sen. David Pryor, D-Ark., is working on a bill that would provide Medicare coverage for emergency response systems.
"It's a great idea," said Lee Norrgard, consumer affairs specialist with the American Association of Retired Persons. "It certainly allows people to live independently and to stay at home. If handled carefully, and investigated properly, we think it's a great idea."
The $60 million emergency response industry began 16 years ago. Norrgard warned that some companies "have been in business a short time and probably will go out of business," while others have a longer track record. AARP recommends that potential buyers check on the stability of the company and find out who is handling the responses.
Many emergency response systems are run either out of hospitals or through private companies affiliated with hospitals. Lifeline Systems Inc., the oldest ERS company, operates about 2,000 programs for hospitals throughout the country, said Arthur R. Phipps, company president and chief executive.
That doesn't mean a subscriber has to go to the hospital handling the call. In Ross' case, she was taken to a hospital closer to her home than the one monitoring the system.
Phipps sees the service, originally created to help the elderly and disabled, being used increasingly for people who may need someone to monitor them, such as "latch key" children who come home to an empty house, patients recently released from a hospital or parents of newborns with physical problems.
Some systems are purchased, with costs ranging from about $750 to $4,000 plus installation fees; others are rented at about $25 to $45 a month.
Roanoke Memorial Hospitals offer a similar system called Critical Alert Link to Life. A monitor is installed near the person's telephone and the patient wears a pendant with a button that can be pushed to activate a call to Roanoke Memorial's operator. The operator calls back and, if there is no answer, alerts a neighbor or relative and a rescue squad. It rents for $25 a month and is available through the hospitals' pharmacy.
Christina Montgomery, Lifeline sales manager, said emergency response systems can prove the appropriate level of response. Often, that response is not an ambulance or police car. Sometimes, it's just a little help from a neighbor.
For example, one elderly woman knocked over her walker and was afraid to try to reach and right it, Montgomery said. She didn't need an ambulance, just someone to help her with her walker.
Here's how the emergency response system is designed to work.
The subscriber receives two pieces of equipment: the button - about the size of a large pillbox - which can be worn around the neck, attached to clothing or worn like a wristwatch; and a two-way console, about the size of a telephone answering machine.
When pushed, anywhere within the home or nearby yard, the button emits a coded radio frequency that activates the console, which immediately takes control of the telephone line and calls the 24-hour response center. The console then acts like a speaker phone, allowing the person to talk and listen without picking it up.
If the person calling is able to speak, the staff member at the response center learns what is the problem and is able to send someone to respond - either a designated neighbor, in non-emergencies, or the appropriate local ambulance, police or fire department in emergency situations.
If the person calling is unable to speak, the staff member immediately calls the designated response person or - if unable to reach someone who can provide quick assistance - calls a local rescue squad.
The console also can be set to automatically call the response center if the person sets it and is physically unable to turn if off. For example, if the console is set to automatically make a call every 24 hours and the person living alone loses consciousness without pushing the button, a response team will be sent within a day - rather than waiting days until his or her absence is noted.
by CNB