✨ Assisted Living & Skilled Nursing

I live at the Army Residence Community in San Antonio, a not-for-profit CCRC. Here we have pendants for residents who need them for a small fee and pull cords in all residences for fall responses. The pendants only work within the cottage/apartment so they are of very limited value. We are looking at contracting with a company for pendants for a more universal coverage. I am looking to see what other CCRCs are doing with respect to pendants. I also am looking to see what other CCRCs are doing with emergency pull cords in cottages and apartments.

Is it reasonable to hope that someday pendant technology will be integrated with smart watches?

I live at Wind Crest, a CCRC in Denver (Highlands Ranch). Our pendants also have the shortcoming of not being functional when off-premises, even if on-premises but not inside a building. Many residents are using Apple watches, which have a fall notification feature. We can set our notification for a person, e.g., partner, concierge desk, family member. If you fall, the watch asks if you've fallen and if you need help. If you answer, "yes" it will notify the designated person and also 911.

WE live in a CCRC in Illinois. Our community is currently in the process of converting to wireless technology for pull cords and pendants with a company called PalCare. They are setting up all pull cords and pendants to communicate with the new emergency notification system The pendants work anywhere on campus (indoors and outdoors).

A couple of thoughts ...

The catch with the features of the Apple watch is that it requires a cellular phone account to transmit the signal. There's probably a business opportunity here for some innovative and enterprising CCRC leader. The downside is that the same technology that can find you when you are in need also knows where you are at every moment ... as do almost all cell phones.

In Channing House, Palo Alto we installed several years ago:

+ a system called SARA Situational Awareness and Response Assistant which supports

+ Inovonics EN1223S Single-Button Water-Resistant PENDANTS &

+ Status Solutions small wall-mounted BOXES with pull-cords down to the ground

+ There is separate communication for staff members via cell phones and VHF radios

+ All external doors have warning sensors for special bracelets approaches

The boxes are located in multiple places in all public rooms (workshop, fitness center, bathrooms, pool, garage, floor dining/living rooms, art/radio room, party room, etc.) and all apartment bathrooms. The pendants can be worn by residents on a necklace or a wrist band.

The pendants are good EVERYWHERE around the campus: 11 story building with basement, pool, AL, SNF, garages, etc. Pressing a pendant locates you within about 20 feet. We know this because our resident tech help team checked pendant reception in every corner of the building including the basement around all the metal storage cages and every public/private room. The pendants also seem to have reception within about 50 feet outside the building but we haven't completely verified this.

The pendants and boxes regularly communicate with the mother ship to confirm reception and check battery charge. Wearing pendants is an issue as who wants to look "old"? If you have a medical issue you are much more likely to wear the pendant.

I had my own personal experience with a pendant. Asleep in the middle of the night I rolled over and triggered my pendant. A nurse came thru my locked apartment door, found me in the bedroom, and rousted me awake to find out what was wrong. The system also has an apartment snooper alarm to make sure we move around in the morning. I've triggered that also resulting in another nurse visit.

Bert

About Apple requiring cell phone account for emergencies. Three ways to connect, depends on what is available.

Apple Watch or nearby iPhone needs a cellular connection or needs to have Wi-Fi calling turned on. If not available, Fall Detection will use Emergency SOS via satellite,

https://support.apple.com/guide/watch/manage-fall-detection-apd34c409704/watchos

Linda Kilcrease

Resident of a CCRC

Here's a good news response to Jim's post.

An Apple Watch can detect your fall and call 911 whether you buy a standard wifi Apple Watch or one that also has a cellular phonecall capability. With a standard Apple Watch (with no extra charge and no need to add a cellular account to the Watch) you can make phone calls (e.g. to 911) if you simply remember to bring your iPhone along on your walk. In that case, if you fall, the Watch would automatically call 911 via your iPhone.

Also, don't worry about privacy of your location. Apple is very committed to privacy protection. So, if you use a Watch or iPhone with the Apple Safari browser and the Apple Maps app (rather than, say, the Google Chrome browser and Google Maps), you can set up the iPhone to keep your location private. But, the good news is, if you fall, your Watch (and iPhone) will notify 911 exactly where to find you (by telling 911 your precise GPS location).

I live at Goodwin House Bailey's Crossroad in Virginia. We have the option of a pendant or a watch if we choose. Recently the system was expanded to cover the entire campus. It includes outdoor areas. Residents are encouraged but not required to use them.

Below shows a problem with CCRC emergency systems from the experience of one resident. Identifying info is removed, this is a summary of the original document.

I bring to your attention the Help buttons that we see in various public locations. They are intended to provide emergency medical support. However, as I recently experienced, the necessary process may not be in place to provide the service that is intended when using the Help button.

What Happened?

Over the weekend, I was in the Fitness Area on the ground floor. It was quiet and much of the time I was the only one there. Before leaving I decided to use the bathroom but when I went in on my scooter I bumped into the wall. This was enough to stop the electronics on the scooter. I was caught in the restroom door, my cell phone outside, and no ability to move out (I am scooter bound). What was I to do? Miraculously, I saw the Help button right in front of me and thought my day was saved.

I pulled the Help button and waited for someone to arrive. Nothing happened for about 15 minutes. I tried the Help button several more times. 

Maintenance got a call from the concierge to say that the Help button wasn’t working right. It was flashing; it needed to be repaired.

It turns out the concierge monitors this Help button and perhaps many others. The concierge asked maintenance to check it out and fix it. The assumption was that no one would be in the fitness area on a weekend day.   

At long last, someone in weekend skilled care nursing staff came by. She was not sure what was going on but was told to check out the fitness area.  The Help button brought no help but rather a need to fix the light on the button.

Food For Thought

What is disturbing about my experience in the Fitness Area is that the Concierge is asked to monitor the Help. The immediate reaction was that the Help button must not be working right and to get maintenance to fix it.

The second concern is that no one is monitoring the fitness area. Many of us came here because amenities are staffed to support residents’ well-being in mind and body. The supervising nurse was new and did not know the fitness area, let alone about the Help buttons.

Key Takeaways on My Part

1.    Processes are not well-established to manage key points of service for residents. In this case, the problem is with monitoring and how best to respond to a Help button request. I am not faulting any of the Team Members but rather the practices and protocols that have been established by the leadership.

2.    The nurse practitioner on duty was extremely helpful and knowledgeable. She offered to bring this matter to the attention of the leadership and elsewhere. She noted that it might take a resident stepping forward to get management to respond and to remedy the situation.

3.    Never assume that services that are in the public area to help us will be available when we need them. Always assess your risk and try to manage that. For now, do not assume that any of the public area Help button services will be available if you need them.

END

Linda Kilcrease

Resident of a CCRC

Robert DiNero played a rogue HVAC engineer who repaired things w/o proper paperwork. Movie was made in late 80's and was very prophetic.

Ed Steinman

Wind Crest

At Charlestown, Catonsville, MD (managed by Erickson Senior Living) we have pull cords in the apartment bathrooms and public restrooms. We also have resident pendants. We are using the Inovonics 1221S-60 model. The system was upgraded last year to cover the 110 acre campus. We are told that the pendants are not GPS but use a wireless system to triangulate to within 60 feet of the person's location once the button is pushed. We have 24/7 emergency responders/security officers who will respond.

https://www.inovonics.com

Ann MacKay

Our facility used Ciscor Wireless which will pick up signals anywhere on campus inside and outside. Our campus is 100 acres and signal receivers are many. It works very well inside and outside apartments and buildings. We are pleased with it.

Our old system was only inside of an individual resident's apartment and left many places on campus outside of range. Residents could not be identified with their beepers unless their fall was at home. Now only was this impractical, it left residents without coverage if they were walking a dog, walking to their car, taking out the trash and more.