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LIFELINE  | | Lifeline Communicator |
As a public service to the community, Saint Agnes Medical Center is a provider of the Lifeline Personal Response Service. This convenient, easy-to-use system consists of an interactive in-home unit called a communicator and a personal help button you wear as a pendant or on a wristband. When others can't be with you, Lifeline is available 24-hours-a-day, seven days a week to provide you with emergency assistance. If a subscriber needs help, one press of the lightweight, waterproof help-button activates the communicator. The communicator contacts a Lifeline monitor who asks what kind of help is needed and contacts whomever is appropriate to provide that help—family, friends, neighbors, or emergency medical professionals.
If the button is pressed and the subscriber cannot speak, the Lifeline monitor contacts emergency medical services immediately. Lifeline provides a valuable service that allows many older adults to continue to live independently in their own homes. The Lifeline communicator and personal response button have very sensitive equipment, and the signal will be received whether you are in another room, on another floor, or outside in your yard. The personal help button is completely waterproof (not just "water-resistant"), so you should wear it in the shower or bath where many falls occur.
Two types of service available:
- Basic Unit includes the communicator and personal response button pendant or wristband
- Enhanced Reminder Phone - in addition to the personal response features, this deluxe phone can be programmed to remind you when it is time to take your medication, or other items you want to remember
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 | | Lifeline personal response button pendant |
Important details about the Lifeline program: - $80 one-time setup fee (nonrefundable)
- $42 for the Basic Unit includes monthly monitoring and leasing fees (plus all service and repair calls)
- $47 for the Enhanced Reminder Phone (includes monitoring and leasing fees, etc.)
- no hidden fees for parts and labor
- installation and training are provided
- lightweight, waterproof pendant
- monthly billing
- installation within a week
- installation and/or monthly leasing fee is not covered by Medi-Cal, Medicare or private insurance
Saint Agnes currently provides the Lifeline service to 625 subscribers throughout our community. All Lifeline installation, service calls, and deactivations are done by dedicated, compassionate Saint Agnes volunteers (Club 55 Plus) who donate their time in support of this program.
For more information about how Lifeline can help protect you or a loved one, call (559) 450-5159. Contact us via e-mail at Club55@samc.com.
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A Medical Perspective
Two articles in the New England Journal of Medicine provide additional reasons why personal response systems can help seniors maintain their independence and in some cases even save lives. The articles reviewed a three-month study of emergency medical services calls and follow-up hospital records from the city of San Francisco, where patients were "found down" (found on the floor, immobilized and unable to get up or even to reach a telephone). Although it was not always possible to determine how long the patient had been stranded alone, it is generally accepted that the medical complications from being "down" can have a profound effect on the patient's recovery. The study summarized some grim facts. Of the 367 patients studied, most were admitted to the hospital, the average hospital stay was eight days, and half required intensive care. Only a third of those who were hospitalized survived to return home. Slightly over half were discharged to nursing homes or other forms of long-term care. Five percent died in the hospital. The total mortality was 67 percent for patients who were estimated to have been helpless for more than 72 hours, as compared with 12 percent for those who had been helpless for less than 1 hour. Of the 367 patients whose cases were reviewed for the study, only 1 had a personal alert system.
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Source information - New England Journal of Medicine, Vol. 334, No. 26, June 27, 1996- R. Jan Gurley, MD, et al. "Persons Found in Their Homes, Helpless or Dead," pp. 1710-16.
- Edward W. Campion, MD, "Home Alone, and in Danger," pp. 1738-39.
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