With so many new products on the market, why use INS LifeGuard?

Almost every week, we are seeing new alarm monitoring products entering the Australian market. Many of these are using cheap, imported and unlicensed technologies. Further, they do not meet Australian Standards (AS4607) either in the technologies used or the services being offered.

It is important to understand the differences between these products and services and those offered by leading medical alarm providers in Australia, such as INS LifeGuard. Indeed, before choosing any supplier of these services, you should see if they meet the INS LifeGuard standard:

• Health Experience – INS is a pioneering community health care provider, in operation since 1984. Our call centre is staffed by highly qualified and experienced nurses and other healthcare providers.
• As one of the oldest care providers in Australia, we have had substantial experience in providing health care services in the community, as well as eHealth, TeleHealth and accompanying assistive technologies.
• Our total-care approach is proactive and ensures clients receive a comprehensive service.
• We encourage clients to let us know when they are unwell so our healthcare staff can regularly check on them. Better we manage the situation than wait for an emergency!
• Following an event, we track the client through the health system until they are back at home and ask them to send through a test alarm for reassurance.
• We offer a free Chat Line and Medical Information Service – clients can call us at any time of the day or night for reassurance, health information or support.
• Our next-generation SmartHome Medical Alarm Systems with integrated virtual care services and technologies are available Australia-wide and throughout New Zealand.
• We provide a service that not only meets but actually exceeds Australian Standards, offers quality and cost-effectiveness, and may assist your organisation in Quality Standard endorsement.
• We are members of the industry representative body Personal Emergency Response Services Ltd (PERSL) and, through our executive team, very active in developing industry standards.

The emerging trend is for care providers to supply non-monitored personal alarms to their clients. This means when an alarm is triggered, the unit calls family and friends rather than a professionally trained emergency operator.

They may also send text messages to responders and display the user’s location in Google Maps. On the surface, this may seem like an attractive, cost-saving proposition, but there are important safety considerations.

Non-monitored alarm systems depend on the availability of family and friends who may be busy at work, taking other calls, or unable to respond for other reasons. Telecommunication networks cannot guarantee the delivery of text messages and may experience very long delays during periods of network congestion.

Additionally, if there’s no voice contact, then 000 may not treat the call as a genuine emergency, and they may be unable to retrieve the GPS location from the text messages. Entrusting INS LifeGuard to handle your medical alarms and monitoring means that a professionally trained healthcare professional is always available. We’ll attempt to make voice contact, determine the nature of the emergency, and provide reassurance that help is on the way.

If an ambulance is required, we’ll pass on all relevant details, including their location and even medical information that could save a life.

Call 1800 636 040 or visit the INS LifeGuard website to find out more.