You’ve chosen a monitored medical alert that works inside and outside your home.
Smart!
Before I get to the list of recommended systems that fit your needs, there’s one thing you need to know.
False claims about range
The companies that sell old-fashioned medical alerts will try to tell you their models “work outside.”
Don’t let them fool you.
What these folks are talking about is that the wrist pendant on one of those old-fashioned systems can work from up to 600 or 1000 feet away, depending on the unit you buy. So if you’re outside, you can press the button and the base station will go to work. It will dial the monitoring center. They will answer and try to talk with you. You will not respond. So after a little while they will have the machine hang up to clear the line and then they’ll try to call you. Your phone will ring, but you won’t be able to answer it. Then, finally, they’ll start working through the “emergency plan” you set up with them.
It’s better than nothing.
You will get help. Eventually. It won’t take a full day, like it did for the 89-year-old woman in Michigan who fell in her garage and waited there until someone noticed she wasn’t doing her usual activities.
But it’s a lot less effective than being able to have an actual 2-way conversation right through the panic pendant you carry.
So remember. When you’re on the phone with a pushy sales rep and they start talking about 1,000 foot range and how the unit works just fine even if you’re outside, they’re talking about the “activation range.” You want to know about “communication range.”
Systems that protect you outside and around your home
There are three ways to get protection outside and around your home.
The first is to buy a mobile medical alert instead of a home-based system. But you’ll recall that on a previous page I noted that the tradeoff is that you sacrifice some convenience and ease of use inside your house.
The second is a hybrid system that includes both a home-based unit and a mobile unit. The best example of this is the Duo from MobileHelp. Inside the house you have your regular wrist or pendant panic button. When you go outside, you grab the mobile unit for complete protection.
My suggestion:
Take a look at the hybrid home and away systems.
Or use the back button to explore other options.
