Do ALs keep electronic records of medic alert calls?
Mom (who has mild dementia) fell recently and says she pushed the alert button on her pendant several times with no response until she finally crawled to the bathroom to pull the emergency cord. The AL team claims they were on it immediately (although they acknowledge she pushed the button AND pulled the cord). She's not a reliable witness, but the AL mgmt sound like they're protecting themselves, it's not the first time they've dropped the ball (When I couldn't reach her on the phone, I'd asked them to go up and check on her and she says they never did - again, she's an unreliable witness to her own life, so I can't be sure).
Does anyone know, or have experience, asking about electronic records of those kinds of calls, rather than taking the facilities word for things?
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youtube.com Elder Guru Answer: Daughter wonders if staff responded timely to fall
You could get the type that you could monitor from your phone. I do not know if that can be recorded and the "tape" saved or if that is another system. But it would be worth looking into.
The first thing to do would be to determine if placing cameras is legal.
There most assuredly should be a record of the fall though. I hope that was documented and what they are doing to try to prevent another fall.
You could do something as straightforward as say to the facility: "may I see my mother's call log, please?" It's a reasonable request, courteously made. It will either make their hearts sink because, dang, now they'll have to drag out the instruction manual and figure out how to access the records; or it might make their day because, hurrah! - somebody has actually asked to see those logs and they haven't been completely wasting their time keeping them.
Either way, let's suppose they do produce them with more or less grace. Where will it get you?
11:03 - Room 42.
11:05 - cancel.
All that tells you is that somebody noticed the alarm and pressed the appropriate acknowledgement button. It doesn't tell you what they did about it. Conversely, supposing the cancellation time is five hours later. That just tells you they forgot to cancel the alarm - could even be the aide was busy helping your mother up and that's why she forgot.
The other reservation I'd have about this is that sometimes the pendant is tricky. Some light up, but it's often a red light on a red background and hard to see. Some are waterproof, which is great if the person forgets to take it off when washing but not so good if she has elderly, arthritic fingers trying to press a teeny little button through rubbery material. So your mother might well have been certain she pressed her pendant alarm without actually having managed to set it off.
I think you might do better to have discreet discussions with other residents' family members and see if response times in general are a concern. Is there a residents' and families' group working with the ALF management? If not, would you like to start one?!
There are cases where 10 minutes seem like 2 hours to the resident either because of cognitive impairment or because of the trauma they experience. However when a 911 call gets an EMS truck to the facility faster than the staff can get to a room and care for the resident then changes need to be made.
Plus one needs to realize that a senior care facility has triage. Where my Dad was, an aide would run over to his apartment to see what was going on, and if it wasn't serious she would tell Dad someone would be with him shortly as it usually took two people to lift someone if they had fallen. Then Dad would forget, and push the button again, and again.
Of course, majority of these falls were at night when there were less employees in the building. Thus running from building to building if it is a larger complex.
As for electronic records, that an excellent question. I would be curious if there was a digital log. The only thing the log may no indicate what the call was for. Some residents would buzz when there was no emergency.