LifePROTEKT lands pilot program with large assisted living facility

One of the largest national assisted living facilities has agreed to partner with LifePROTEKT and pilot various GPS Personal Location Devices to monitor at risk residents with Alzheimers or dementia that may have the propensity to wander.  This is an added precaution to the existing wandering prevention and security safeguards already installed at the facilities.  

The various LifePROTEKT devices for this pilot are linked to GPS systems to track patients both indoors and outdoors.   Some of the devices represented contain a cell phone to allow the wearer to communicate with contacts programmed into the device.  Many of these products carried by LifePROTEKT are designed to be worn on the wrist and can be secured so they cannot easily be removed, and have SOS Panic buttons that can be connected directly to an emergency monitoring center in case of an accidental elopement.

These device gives people suffering from Alzheimer’s or dementia more freedom because the family can log on and see where they are, said Rik Warren, a LifePROTEKT healthcare consultant.  Satellite tracking allows the devices to be monitored in real time regardless of whether the wearer is walking or traveling in a car, he said.

“These devices are intended to help prevent at-risk patients from wandering from the facilities and to be able to set up geofences or perimeters if they were to accidently enter or leave  a designated area of the facility” according to Kimberly Lockheart Vice President of Healthcare Solutions for LifePROTEKT. 

These devices are also used by baby boomers to allow them to stay in their homes longer.  LifePROTEKT wandering prevention solutions provide a higher measure of security and serve as a much lower-cost alternative to having full-time home health care said according to Kimberly Lockheart.  According to one executive at the Alzheimer’s Association, there are a number of devices on the market that have proved useful in finding patients who have wandered away from their homes. “Any device or product that can provide safety and peace of mind to caregivers is a benefit,” he said.

“Devices such as those distributed by LifePROTEKT, however, aren’t a replacement for caregivers and we must not forget that when it comes to at-risk seniors with Alzheimer’s or dementia a large majority will wander” according to Rik Warren.

He also added that LifePROTEKT devices have many potential uses.  Many of the products we sell go to the special needs communities of autism down-syndrome and brain trauma injured individuals.  LifePROTEKT works very closely with many law enforcement agencies and healthcare organizations to work together and deploy these solutions in areas that are needed the most.  “We see a lot of applications for these devices” he said.

The device costs  range from $129 – $495, plus $10 – $30.00 per month for the monitoring service.  That compares with about $20 an hour for in-home health care and $170,000 a year for 24-hour in-home care for those wishing to live independently.

Please check out the various LifePROTEKT products from Xavier, Laipac, Lok8u and Silver Alert GPS.  We are adding products with newer technologies every month that will be far more advanced in battery life (up to 30 days), more accurate indoor location and  many other features such as heart rate monitoring and fall detection.  Stay tuned…