lderly residents to live independently in their own homes longer will now be run out of Toronto.
Sunrise Health Region (SHR) officials say they contracted out the administration, monitoring and installation of Lifeline to Toronto-based Phillips this spring.
Communications director Sharon Tropin says the Region made the change mainly to free up employees overseeing the monitoring service for their regular duties.
"We haven't reduced staff as a result," Tropin details. "The Homecare staff did the installs and removal of equipment. The billing was done through Yorkton Homecare. Our primary motivation was to free up the Homecare staff to be doing other work."
The Lifeline is a device seniors can wear while at home. If clients fall, or become too ill to phone for help, they can push a button on the device, triggering an alarm in the monitoring station.
An operator answers the alarm and calls the client to determine if the system has been triggered accidentally. If the client requests help or can't answer the operator's phone call, such emergency services as police and ambulance are dispatched to check on
the person.
Since it began in Melville a few decades ago, monitoring has been done by employees in St. Peter's Hospital.
A designated employee working in the reception area answers alarms on day shifts but during the other 16 hours of each day nursing staff covers Lifeline.
From now on, Phillips will monitor the alarms and call a local emergency dispatcher who'll contact police or ambulance crews to respond. Phillips will also bill clients through its office and contract out equipment installations and removal to a local company.
Tropin says service should stay the same and even the cost won't change for current clients for at least a year.
"They have agreed they are grandfathering current clients at the current fees (of $35 per month plus GST) for one year. New clients will pay $5 more a month."
Sunrise hasn't raised its Lifeline fees for several years, Tropin says, and they remain among the lowest of all
Saskatchewan Health Regions.
