(gentle music) - Medical alert systems
are designed to send first responders to seniors
during emergencies as fast as possible.
And that valuable time makes a huge difference
for anyone who's taken a serious fall,
has chronic conditions or a disability.
If you've been considering a medical alert system
for an older parent, a loved one, or even yourself,
you might be wondering, how do these things work,
and how easy are they to set up?
I sat down with our senior safety expert to learn more
about her experience with medical alert systems.
- My name is Cathy Habas and I'm a staff writer
for safewise.com.
- Cathy has been busy over the last year,
testing a handful of medical alert systems in her own home
and getting firsthand experiences with all of them.
- I have tested Aloe Care Health,
Bay Alarm Medical, and GetSafe.
- According to Cathy, the system's brand
is the biggest variable when it comes to installation.
- I say it's more brand by brand
'cause every single one that I've tested has been different.
Some of them are plug and play
and you don't have to do anything else.
Some of them, there's a switch
on the back that you have to activate.
There's a backup battery tab that you need to pull
to make sure the battery is active,
and then there's a pairing process for some of them.
- From what we found, most medical alert systems
have these steps in common.
Connect the base station, pair the accessories,
then test everything.
So, let's get into it.
Connecting the base station is the first step
in any in-home medical alert system.
On that base station, you'll usually find a large button,
a microphone, and a speaker so you can talk
to the monitoring center in an emergency.
Generally, there are two types of base stations,
cellular and landline connected bases.
Thankfully, they're both pretty easy to set up.
Landline based systems plug into your home phone jack,
while cellular systems just need to be powered on.
- So if you have a landline system,
obviously, it'll come with a phone cord
and you plug one end into the base unit,
one end into your telephone jack,
and there should be like a status light that lets you know
that that's connection is working properly,
and then you should be good to go.
- Once your base station has been set up,
it's time to add the accessories
that came with your medical alert kit.
These can be devices like wearable buttons
or wall buttons that let you call for help
without being right next to the base station.
Cathy ran into this part of the process
while testing GetSafe and Bay Alarm Medical.
- So, with Bay Alarm Medical,
you need to plug in the system,
wait for it to connect to a cellular connection.
There's a switch on the back
and that is for pairing your accessories,
so your wall button or your wearable pendant,
and then you also can do a range test with Bay Alarm Medical
so that you can confirm that all of your accessories
can communicate with the base station
from where they are in your home.
- But, Aloe Care Health was a different story.
- The Aloe Care system came prepared.
So that has a wearable pendant for the in-home system.
But I didn't have to do anything to make that pendant work.
I just plugged in the Aloe Care system into the wall.
There was no switch to turn on and off,
no pairing mode to enter, no test mode, nothing.
So you just plug it in, wait for it to kinda think
about connecting to a cellular connection,
and then confirm that it's connected,
and then you're good to go.
- This step might take the longest,
depending on how many pieces your medical alert system has.
We recommend pairing everything to your base station first
before putting them on the wall or testing their range
or moving them away from the base station.
Which brings us to our last step.
Once the base station and accessories are connected,
it's time to test everything out.
Just like your smoke and carbon monoxide detectors,
you want to make sure that your medical alert system works
before there's an emergency.
From her experience, only Bay Alarm Medical required testing
as part of the setup process.
But, we do encourage you to do this,
regardless of what brand you get.
The quickest way to test your system
is with the button on the main base station.
It should call the monitoring center where you'll hear
from a trained pro on the other side, ready to help out.
This is what a typical test call might look like.
- GetSafe first, do you need help?
- Hi, no, I'm just testing the unit.
The company, they will come on the line and say,
you know, they're with GetSafe,
or they're with Bay Alarm Medical, and they'll say,
"Do you need help?"
And you just say, "No, I was testing my equipment",
and then they confirm,
"Okay, so you're saying you don't need help?"
Then they will confirm your name and your address
to make sure it's up to date in the system.
And then they will say, "Okay, I'm disconnecting now."
And that's it.
- Of the systems Cathy tested, Aloe Care Health
had the fewest steps, no pairing for her accessories
and no button or range test required.
GetSafe required some pairing for its wall buttons,
but no range test, and the process was finished
in under 10 minutes.
And then there was Bay Alarm Medical.
- I would say that Bay Alarm Medical was the most involved
because they do want you to do a range test
and they walk you through it.
They have a test mode.
So, following their, like, setup instructions to a T
takes a while, but I didn't run into any trouble.
- After testing these three systems,
Cathy has some great pro tips for your own installation.
Place the wall buttons lower on the wall,
watch the battery levels for your devices,
and don't forget the lockbox or vial of life.
(gentle music)
Medical alert systems are designed
to be as easy as possible to set up.
Whether you're looking into one for a loved one
or an older parent or yourself and a spouse,
you can expect to follow this formula.
Connect, pair, and test.
But, like our tester said,
the finer details can vary from brand to brand.
So, be sure to read over the instructions
before getting started on your system,
and check out our video reviews on the brands
that Cathy has tested.
We also dropped links in the description
to our lineups of the best medical alerts
and the best medical alerts for fall detection
and tons of other articles on senior safety.
Thanks for watching, and if you want more safety,
head over to safewise.com and you can find reviews
and our lineups of best home security systems,
best wireless cameras, and more.
Stay safe.