Medical Guardian MGMini – Medical Alert

Good So Far, Haven’t Had Any Emergencies
Like his last alert-button-device, the alert-button isn’t perfect. It doesn’t always contact the company, and so you need to press it more than once (spaced out, to ensure you reach them), and so it may not help if your patient is having a heart attack and loses consciousness. That said, every single device on the market has a reputation for this same issue (no matter the manufacturer) because a button-press that is too light simply won’t trigger the system. These are designed not to accidentally activate, and so you have to press just right to get them active, which means too-light a touch won’t work. Thankfully, Guardian has a reputation for being one of the best out there for activating when desired, and we found that this one activated properly in testing.As with any device of this type, we face down the issue of the charging of the device. He said that it charges very well, but he doesn’t always know when it needs to charge, so he’s charging it once a day to be sure it’s okay. His last unit failed a few times, despite being charged, so we tried this, and it hasn’t had any failures due to power loss so far. I should specify that we haven’t had any emergencies recently, and so we don’t know if this holds up in actual emergency conditions where he might be confused or having difficulty. In testing conditions, he presses the button and then the company is contacted, but he’s awake and alert and in no pain at those times. I will of course update this if there are ever any problems with his device, but, as to the results we got in testing, this is a solid option just like we expected and it has performed exactly as the instructions said it would.We all know that there’s nothing perfect out there yet. There isn’t a device on the market that won’t fail to be triggered if the press is too light, nor is there a device that stays charged for a week, but this is just about the best I’ve seen given modern technology. It has the ability to contact help if he needs it, and that’s the peace of mind we need. I’m impressed with the quality and the service you get when you subscribe with this, and I trust the brand as well, so I do recommend this for anyone seeking a personal-health monitor to aid them in medical emergencies and with in-home patients in need of emergency services from time to time.

Spectacularly awful
I bought this device after calling Medical Guardian looking for a device that would work well in a place with lots of 5G and little 4G cell coverage. This device needs good 4G. But that’s not the most troubling issue.This device needs regular charging but does not have a charge indicator onboard— it needs to be in its charging cradle. It has a side switch for testing, but the side switch also can turn the device off. Pressing the main “I’ve fallen and can’t get up!” button yields hit or miss results ranging from nothing to beeping to reporting there is not a good (4G) cell signal. The big button is mostly uninformative but occasionally flashes orange. I cannot imagine non tech-oriented seniors depending on this device and would not trust it in an emergency.Medical Guardian’s unresponsiveness on the phone makes the device’s problem worse. I’m an existing customer and can’t get past the hold music when I try to get help with this device or advice about other potential solutions. This doesn’t provide much reassurance that an emergency call for help will be heeded.

Small and User Friendly
The device came well packaged and was very easy to charge (only goes in one way)One star taken off because of the app (see below) and the mechanism of attachment of the device to a clothing clip or the necklace (both are included). The mechanism is difficult to use ie removal and attachment is through a small plastic clip that is difficult if not impossible to unclip for my elderly mother in law.On the other hand the device has two buttons: one the action major button on the device which is abke to make a call and if held further (as the voice prompt indicates) it cancels the call, the other button is for testing the product or to turn it off.The red display on the device is clearly visible and does indicate a low battery as well as a complete charge although it would have been nice to have an understanding outside of the app, how much charge there actually is in the device.The other obvious issue is the charge of the system which is 40$ per month with additional fees for fall detection. This price is about the lower range of the mid range prices with at least one device at 25 dollars and most of the others upwards of 45.Gps tracking is included and is usable through the Guardian App although the service is poor for accurate real time monitoring. The battery notice for charge is delayed and not updated frequently. Unfortunately the app is relatively disappointing compared to a highly rated product otherwise.For the price of the service the App and features should be more updated and responsive for this elderly population and the families that it supports.