The effectiveness of personal emergency response systems in meeting the safety monitoring needs of home care clients.

Personal emergency response systems (PERS) are electronic communication devices placed in the home to summon help in an emergency. In 1988, New York enacted legislation providing for Medicaid reimbursement for patients of certified home health agencies (CHHAs) whose PERS substituted for hours of safety monitoring by a personal care worker as part of the plan of care. Before the implementation of the new legislation, the Visiting Nurse Service of New York initiated a grant-funded demonstration project in February 1992, which showed that PERS save lives, reduce healthcare costs, and are well received by patients. The authors discuss the issues and outcomes surrounding the use of PERS within a CHHA.