In a nutshell, all of these devices make medical alerts at times inconsistent. There are still some companies out there that claim their medical alarm devices work fine with DSL. DSL works just fine most of the time. It’s one out of a hundred or so times that you push the button on your personal alarm that trouble occurs. Sometimes the trouble is simply too much noise imposed on the phone line by DSL, which usually results in a medical alarm signal received, but does not let the central monitoring station switch to voice communication. Recently a competitor called me to thank me for this advise about medical alert systems. The night before, his client, who was set up with 2 splitters in series on DSL, she fell in the middle of the night...she pushed her button twice and it never connected to his monitoring center. He now believes DSL and medical alarms are not a good idea.
The secondary problem with DSL is the same problem that splitters have…sometimes they malfunction…in failing they cause the medical alarm not to be able to communicate with the monitoring center.
I have never found a 100% quality connection with DSL. To test and see the inconsistencies push the button on your medical alert system at least 100 times and voice-to-voice communicate with the medical monitoring center. The only resolution I know to fixing the DSL medical alarm problem is this: Don't use them. Are you willing to chance that when your loved one pushes the button on their medical alert system... and it doesn't work? It's kind of playing Russian roulette. Wireless jacks introduce noise on the phone too…they are just unpredictable.
No medical alarm device should ever be hooked up to Voice over IP (Internet phones). No doubt, the telephone long distance rate is great. We use Voice over IP phones to connect our offices in Santa Barbara, Maui, Kentucky and Los Angeles. We need a landline for backup because 10% of the time noise is so loud on the line, we must switch off VOIP. Switching to a landline is easy technology for our offices. In your home, when you need help the most, you could be in trouble. Beyond that noise problem… Internet connections are never reliable, especially in conjunction with a medical alert.
Solution:
If you are concerned about getting help consistently during an emergency…
DON’T USE ANY OF THESE DEVICES in the telephone jack with your medical alarm or alert system. The risk is simply too high. Keep it simple.
If you must use one of these devices, a separate phone number (a separate phone line) for any medical alarm system or medical alert device is the best solution.
Hint: Cable modems provide better speeds than DSL for Internet connection and they don’t interfere with medical alarms and the medical monitoring center. Dial up connection will work fine…it’s just much slower.
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