What is Lifeline?
Lifeline is a personal emergency response system, a means of summoning emergency help when an individual is unable to dial the telephone. It is a community service program of the Cumberland Medical Center Volunteer Services Department.

How does Lifeline work?
A Lifeline subscriber (the person who has a Lifeline unit in his home) wears a small, lightweight help button. Whenever a subscriber needs emergency help, he presses this small button or the red help button on the Lifeline unit. Pressing the help button activates the home unit that automatically dials Cumberland Medical Center’s emergency department. Lifeline units are so sophisticated that they will work even if the telephone is off the hook or in the event of an electrical failure.

What are other features of Lifeline?
The yellow reset button located on the Lifeline home unit serves as a timer mechanism. If the reset button is not pushed once in the morning and once in the evening, the unit signals the emergency department. This safety feature automatically alerts the emergency department should the subscriber become unconscious, or otherwise unable to push the reset button. If the subscriber plans to be away from the home for more than 24 hours, he should turn the unit’s black switch from the home position toward the away position. Placing this switch in the away position deactivates the reset button, and allows the subscriber to safely spend a night away from home. (The subscriber must reset the switch to home when he returns.)

Also, each Lifeline subscriber has an information card on file in the emergency department that lists medications taken, directions to the subscriber’s home, physical handicaps, allergies, etc. This information is vital if a subscriber should ever need emergency medical treatment.

What Role Does the Emergency Department Play?
When a subscriber pushes the help button, the home unit signals the Lifeline computer, which is monitored 24 hours a day by Cumberland Medical Center’s emergency department nurses. Upon receiving a help-needed signal, these nurses first try to call the subscriber, in case the help button was pushed accidentally.

If the subscriber does not answer, the nurse will call a responder. (A responder is someone, usually a family, friend or neighbor, whom a subscriber has chosen to be called in an emergency.)

When a responder is called by an emergency department nurse, he should go quickly to the subscriber’s house. Once inside, the responder first pushes the yellow reset button on the Lifeline home unit. By pushing the reset button, the responder signals the emergency department that help has arrived. A nurse will immediately call the subscriber’s home to talk with the responder and determine if an ambulance, police or fire department should be called. If a nurse cannot contact the subscriber or responder, she will dispatch emergency personnel to the subscriber’s home.

The emergency department nurses are a vital link in the Lifeline program. However; do not call the emergency department to test the unit, discuss possible problems with the unit, or to ask about a Lifeline payment balance. Instead, contact the Cumberland Medical Center Volunteer Services Department at 459-7133 between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. Monday through Friday.