Well let’s see…

1. We’re the good guys

2. I helped pioneer the elderly medical alarm industry in 1980.

3. In my first 15 years in the medical alarm industry I manufactured our equipment, wrote monitoring center software, and I care.

4. My people are very well trained, I look for people who have great customer care training…this comes in very handy when our clients or employees are having a difficult time.

5. My president Roni has her Master’s in the Hearing impaired.

6. I have a degree in Psychology.

7. We approach this business from a caring perspective, let alone a knowledgeable perspective.

8. If we need to, we will often spend an hour or more to help an elderly client understand how to rectify their situation, if we can’t, we’ll notify the family and solicit their help.

9. Our monitoring center is in Orange County, CA and is redundantly backed up in Arlington, Texas with the same data should an earthquake or other disaster try to throw us off line.

10. Our monitoring center is one of a very few monitoring centers that are UL Listed, FM approved, and Department of Defense approved…which means we can monitor not only you, but Defense installations, and large building fire systems.

We are prepared to serve and care about our clients, I have long ago earned enough money to retire, I stay in this business because I care, as do all of my staff. Earning another $24.95 per month is not important to me, what matters is doing the right thing.

Our motto and guiding principles are…do no harm, be ethical, and have a system I would be proud to use for my mother.

The best thing I can tell you about selecting your medical alarm service is, whomever you choose, take your time, talk to them, see who is a salesperson and who makes you feel good.

“We provide affordable housing for low-income, independent Elders.

We are grateful for your generous project.”

Dear Sister Joanna,

I have recently, in my last few years of life, discovered the pleasures and reward of charitable giving.

I applaud the noble work that you do every day, and I aspire to equal your efforts. I’m especially proud of having fed 150 children this past year in a Namibian village, their smiles warm and break your heart at the same time. But that is only money, I aspire to sweat and toil as well.

We will send you the Decals you have requested post haste. Let me know if there is more that we can do to help.

Sincerely,

Jeffrey C. Miller, CEO

This is an answer I gave about sending our brochure to a concerned daughter-in-law for her 81 year old mother-in-law who is heavy and wants to live in her own home. She goes on to state that her bedroom is on the 2nd floor. She is heavy, starting to weaken, but does not want to leave her home of 40 years.

I just thought I’d share this one since it is so similar to many questions or comments I receive.

Hi Lee,

Thanks for ordering our brochure, we’ll get it right out to you tomorrow.

I understand why your mother-in-law wants to stay in her own home. In my opinion, staying in your own home prolongs one’s life and allows your mother-in-law to have the best quality of life she can.

You know, when my grandfather had to leave his home of 50 years to live with my aunt, I felt it shortened his life, and he certainly wasn’t as happy as he could be. Don’t get me wrong, my aunt had him move in out of love and concern. My grandfather was my motivation to help pioneer the medical alarm industry back in 1980.

Though your mother-in-law is 81 and is heavy,  (me too ),  the best elderly alert systems like ours will keep her independent for as long as she can be alone.

Thank you for caring about her and thinking of an elderly alert system. These often give you the first alert you need that a loved senior is in trouble.

Regardless of which company you choose, you will be making the right decision for her in my humble opinion.

Bless you,

Jeff

How to compare medical alarm companies is a question that is frequently asked. I’d say it is near impossible to do by just reading the Internet.

Medical alarm companies have sprung up all over the country, some provide wonderful caring medical alarm service, others are just after your money. Your first alert that it is not a good company is a slick salesman or woman telling you that another company monitors their clients in India. I know of no monitoring being done for a medical alarm company overseas.

I helped pioneer the medical alarm industry back in 1980, and yet, I read on the Internet more and more people claiming they started the industry back in the 70’s. I know of only one organization that started in the 1970’s, and that would be Lifeline. Lifeline at that time was using hospital emergency rooms to provide their monitoring services locally. I do believe they also had a center in the Boston area.

Lifeline, now known as Phillips Lifeline is the oldest and largest medical alarm service in the country. Many times they have offered to buy me out, me, I’m not selling. They have somewhere north of 700,000 clients. I imagine at times it is quite difficult for them to provide the service they would like.

The company you see often on TV that Dr. Koop is pushing is another very large company, they started in 1986 and use very powerful sales techniques to encourage many clients to subscribe. They are one of the best at bringing on new clients with their ads. One of the difficulties for this company is that TV advertising and salesman are expensive so they must pass this cost on to their clients. That’s just how business works.

This leads me to the very frequent question I am asked about our medical alarm service, “Why are you so inexpensive?” We’re not, we are properly priced in the market place to provide excellent service. We are considered to be the least expensive of all the major alarm companies. Why? I’m more concerned about keeping our client base and their families happy and providing the best medical alarm service possible. I, and my employees, make a great living doing just that, and that’s good enough for us.

Our clients are shocked at the level of service we provide. It is far from unusual for our customer service people to spend an hour at a time on the phone with someone who needs the help. We are ofter praised for our good service. It starts from the top, I only hire caring people, and we really do care.

I often laugh when people call here asking if we hire ethnic people, that’s one of the questions the salespeople from some companies push seniors to ask of their competitors…it’s a subtle inference that their company would not hire ethnic people. Let that be your first alert to be suspect of those organizations. And by the way, do you have something against ethnic people…isn’t that a might disgusting? What do they mean by that?

Use your common sense, if a person talks about the other companies poorly, they are usually talking about themselves. Give these type organizations a wide berth.

If a medical alarm service wants to lock you into a contract for any period of time, be careful, there is no reason to sign a contract that cannot be canceled. There is no reason to pay an installation fee, or to pay for the equipment used. This industry has evolved, the good companies out there would never do that.

The larger the company the more they must pass their expenses over to the client. Large national companies must operate this way.

Just be careful. Be comfortable with the people you are talking to, if something does not past the smell test it should not pass at all.

Sorry for rambling, but sometimes I just like to get on my high horse and shout out what’s real and what is not.

I don’t care which company you choose that fits your needs, there are many good medical alarm services out there.

We’re one of them!

The help button normally provided by good alarm companies will reliably get the help you need at the touch of a button. It connects you to your local 911 emergency response team. And let me say this about the 911 teams around the country…they are the noble heroes of our time.

Being in the medical alarm business I get to see and hear how well these first responders are trained. They leap into action in spite of the dangers they face daily.

When you meet these heroes, greet them like you would a cherished friend and thank them for their service.

I always do.

This has got to be one of my favorite questions. I can speak to who has the best medical alarm system for many pages, but I’ll spare you my long winded answer.

Who recommends our medical alarm system? Most importantly I do!

Although it was back in 2002 and 2003 that we were listed in AARP’s “My Generation” magazine and their “AARP the Magazine Online” as a resource for Personal Alarms…I’m tickled by how many people when we ask say they were recommended to our company by AARP. It has been years since AARP listed our Senior Safety organization but they appear to have a really long reach. There must be some of their customer service people who still remember  us and know how good we really are to our clients. We receive at least eight clients a month that swear that AARP is where they heard about us. Who am I to argue?

If you take a look at our Thank You Letters section here on our blog you will find an infinite number of government agencies, fire departments, police departments, hospitals, American Red Cross, individual family members and more thanking us for our peoples kindness and our charity.

We love helping people. I’ve reached a stage in life that I like helping others. It makes me feel good.

I’m often asked who is the best elderly alarm company for a senior mom or dad.

My best advice to a noble caregiver is to read all the brochures and listen to what the particular company they are calling says. The good elderly alarm companies don’t try to push an alarm on you, they take time and answer your questions, and they surely don’t speak poorly of others.

You know, there is no reason to speak poorly of the bad companies, any one with half a brain and quickly tell who is the slick salesman and who is a caring businessman or woman. Certainly all of us would like your business, but only the best companies don’t mind directing you elsewhere if that were a better solution for you.

I’m often asked why are we so inexpensive compared to other elderly alarm systems, it’s simple, we have many clients we care about, taking more money than a senior can afford is poor form. We don’t need more clients; however, we do appreciate everyone’s business that chooses our elderly alarm.

Take your time to think about your decision. We are considered the most affordable elderly alarm of all the eight or so larger companies in the industry.

I strive to hire good caring people, not salesmen. No one here is on commission, they receive more money from me when they receive more of the lovely letters of thanks from their happy customers. We all pass the thank you letters around and smile at our good fortune.

Our employees have been here a long time. You may speak to Noah (a comedian at heart), Lisa (our early morning person and a special needs elementary school teacher, and a great mom), Michelle (who has her MA in clinical psychology with an emphasis in marriage and family therapy), Roni (who has an MS in hearing impairment and who amazingly remembers everyone of our customers), Kenny (our in house classically trained chef and cameraman), Casey (a producer at heart who has made several films), and others that you will enjoy getting to know yourself.

We care.

.

Our elderly relatives often find winter snow to be a difficult time of year. This first alert of winter falls is a good time to consider some type of medical alert device to protect your loved ones should they fall and need help to get up. Sometimes they are unable to reach the phone for help.

Consider talking to a variety of medical alarm companies to decide which one is the best medical alarm for your mom or dad…take time to compare medical alarm companies…they are far from the same.

Do they speak politely to you over the phone?  Or do they try to scare or push you into buying now? Do they speak badly of other companies? Do they give you an uneasy feeling in your stomach?

These are classical signs that the medical alarm company you are speaking too is a might scary.

Take time to make the right decision…a fast decision can wind you up with a long term contract that cannot be cancelled.

Order everyone’s brochure and then decide…give you and your family peace of mind.

Get Help Now has been a pioneer in elderly alert systems, truly the first alert that the seniors are in trouble . We have helped thousands of seniors who have fallen and needed help getting up through the years.

Don’t leave your loved one to live alone without the ability to call for help when they need it most, when they can’t reach the phone for help.

I’m sitting here listening to Noah, Michelle, Casey and Roni chatting up with all of our elderly clients during this holiday season.

It makes me smile to know how my service technicians take special care when they speak to the senior community we serve with such interesting and caring conversations.

We here at Get Help Now know that sometimes we have to take a little more time to help some of our elderly seniors who are having a little difficulty replugging our medical alert system in after they have moved down to Florida or Arizona for the winter…snow birds often appreciate the time we take.

It’s not unusual to spend 30 minutes to an hour with our chatty friends.

We love our work…and we care.