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QUESTION:  PERS CS RESPONSE POLICY 
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Ken,
    In the past you have provided us with contracts for our medical alert systems. I recently had a client who fell and when the central station asked if she needed dispatch sent to her home she said no.  Client thought they were going to call her contact to let them know about the signal and incident. Central station policy is that they do not call contacts if person refuses dispatch (they assume everything is fine).   I would like to write up something for client and family to sign letting them know that refusal of emergency service is their right,  however we have no liability if a person refuses service. How would I go about doing this?
Thank you,
RM
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RESPONSE
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    How you [and your central station] agree to respond to signals and alarm conditions is perhaps one of the more important issues that arise in the subscriber - alarm company relationship.  That relationship is of course defined by an alarm agreement.  If your alarm agreement doesn't address a Response Policy then it's inadequate and should be updated [more like tossed altogether and start over].  
    Here is the provision that appears in earlier versions of our Standard PERS Agreement:
Upon receipt of a signal, NM or its designated central office, shall make every reasonable effort to notify the appropriate municipal police, fire, medical, EMT, emergency personal response service or person designated by Subscriber in Subscriber’s Call List to receive notification. (copyright 3/15) 
    The above provisions is going to be updated in our PERS Agreement to conform with the provision in the updated Standard Residential All in One and the Standard Commercial All in One:
Subscriber agrees to furnish ALARM COMPANY with a written Call List of names and telephone numbers of those persons Subscriber wishes to receive notification of alarm signals.  Unless otherwise provided in the Call List ALARM COMPANY will make a reasonable effort to contact the first person reached or notified on the list either via telephone call, text or email message.  No more than one call to the list shall be required and any form of notification provided for herein, including leaving a message on an answering machine, shall be deemed reasonable compliance with ALARM COMPANY’s notification obligation.  All changes and revisions shall be supplied to ALARM COMPANY in writing. (copyright 7/15)
    In addition to this the All in One refers to a written Response Policy that is [or should be] available from the alarm company.  If you are a dealer who engages a wholesale third party monitoring company then ask them for their written Response Policy.  If you're a central station then you need a written Response Policy.  Even if you don't have a Response Policy that you have prepared for the dealer and end user subscriber, you most likely have an Operational Manual that you use for training your central station operators.  This should be used to prepare your Response Policy.
    So what goes into the Response Policy that should be available to the dealer and the end user?  The Response Policy should identify every type of alarm that the alarm system is capable of sending and the CS receiving.  In formulating the Response Policy the cs needs to be mindful of legal requirements as well as custom and practice that may be recommended by regulatory agencies [UL and other testing laboratories, NFPA - but be careful because these recommendations may be adopted by municipalities and are now required to be followed by law].  It stands to reason that cs operators need to be trained on how to respond to every conceivable signal.  It makes sense that the dealer and end user know what that response is going to be.  
    If the cs has a policy of no further contact once the subscriber has been reached and dispatch to primary responders declined, then that too needs to be in the written Response Policy.
    Dealers, you need to have available and present to end users Operational Manuals for the systems you install and the central station's Response Policy.