What differentiates a PERS central?

I've spoken with plenty of monitoring professionals about the difference between monitoring a PERS signal and a more traditional burg or fire alarm. Recently, I spoke with Todd Lindstrom, director of Life Safety Monitoring, about some of the things that differentiate the company's PERS-focused central station.

Lindstrom said that PERS operators need to be segmented from operators that handle more traditional alarms because the mindset is different. “You tend to be more production orientated when you're doing the burg/fire, … [focused on] speed, how they handle the call, how many calls they handled,” he said. “Here, we're on the call a lot longer, because you've got patients that may not hear well, [or] they're a little confused.”

The company has been doing more wellness calls with its users, Lindstrom said. “We call and ask them a few basic questions; if they've taken their meds, or how they're feeling today.” Life Safety Monitoring has been doing these calls for about a year-and-a-half, he said.

Plans for wellness calls could include calls once a week, once a day or twice a day, he said. “It makes a son or daughter more comfortable to know that someone's calling,” said Lindstrom.

These calls could be linked to activity tracking platforms, “If somebody doesn't pass down a hallway … Then we'll call and check, and if we don't get a response then we'll send somebody.” The company is currently working on integrating the Numera Libris in the next 30 days, he said. Particularly, the company is interested in the device's fall detection abilities.

He said that activity monitoring platforms help with the quality of care, such as tracking items users might forget, like how many times they got up during the night.

Lindstrom said that only about 1 percent of the company's monitored accounts are mPERS devices, but expects this segment will grow to 10 percent in the next year or 18 months. MPERS are good for a segment of users that like to spend the winter months in warmer climates, “Now, they don't have to drag that stationary device.”

Life Safety Monitoring has 16 operators and monitors about 10,000 accounts, he said.