Medical Guardian review
Founded to guarantee the safety of its founder's grandmother, Medical Guardian has become a prominent provider of medical alert systems and monitoring services, enabling individuals to live independently and securely. With over 310,000 satisfied customers, Medical Guardian provides customers with dependable support through phone, email, chat, and a convenient online portal. The company's accreditation from the Better Business Bureau further solidifies its reliability.
Our comprehensive review of Medical Guardian showcases how the introduction of the Medical Guardian Freedom smartwatch and the Family Guardian caretaker tracking system have positioned Medical Guardian among the leading choices in the market.
Medical Guardian: Medical alert systems
Medical Guardian provides various medical alert systems beyond the standard services.
Let's examine each system:
MGClassic: An affordable in-home landline system with a wireless pendant boasting the longest range tested. However, greater range may not always be advantageous as it can impede effective communication with emergency responders when far from the base station.
MGHome Cellular: An in-home system utilizing a cellular network. It's the well-known Mobilehelp CBS5 system, featuring exceptional speaker quality, providing clear and loud audio for seamless communication with emergency responders.
MGMini: A reliable mobile pendant-style device that includes GPS location tracking, making it easier and faster for EMTs to locate you in an emergency.
MGMini Lite: Another mobile system with GPS and Wi-Fi location tracking, providing a more precise determination of your location when help is needed. It's conveniently designed as a wrist style, similar to a watch.
MGMove: The most stylish option, a sleek smartwatch with a color display and up to 24 hours of battery life. Unlike most smartwatches, it doesn't require a smartphone connection due to its cellular capabilities. It offers excellent audio quality, text-to-speech capabilities, and even additional apps like a weather forecast. Notably, it's user-friendly, making it accessible for those unfamiliar with smartwatches or smartphones, while providing more than just a safety net. Its non-medical alert appearance makes it appealing to many seniors.
Unfortunately, the pricing for the plans for these devices is opaque, and requires company contact. We prefer some transparency on this allowing seniors to cross shop the prices and stay within their budget.
Medical Guardian: Emergency response center
In our evaluation, Medical Guardian outperformed most services by promptly answering emergency calls in less than 30 seconds on average. Their response time consistently ranked among the fastest in every round of testing, although it was not always the absolute fastest. This impressive performance is largely attributed to the high-quality call center they have partnered with, ensuring prompt assistance in critical situations.
In addition to the emergency response speed, we analyzed the call quality. The quality of the calls was consistently excellent, which is primarily due to the call center partnered with Medical Guardian. In comparison, some emergency response centers had inconsistent scripts and disinterested operators. However, Medical Guardian had operators who followed an effective script, and they sounded genuine. They repeatedly asked if we needed assistance and confirmed our identity, which is a small but impactful security measure.
Medical Guardian: Medical alert service
Medical Guardian is known for its "Client Support" department, emphasizing customer service. However, while the assistance provided is commendable, we find the marketing approach to be somewhat overly assertive. While we understand that every business aims to drive sales, the marketing tactics employed at times seem excessive.
We took the risk assessment, expecting a call from a "safety specialist" or a third-party consultant. We were surprised to receive a call from a sales representative. Despite answering all questions with responses indicating no risk (no falls, no medical issues, no medications, regular exercise, and no need for mobility assistance), the representative still recommended the purchase of the Classic Guardian. We would have preferred the assessment's conclusion to be something like "Congratulations! You don't need a medical alert system."
In terms of support options, the first and only route is to contact them at the Customer Service number, 1-800-313-1191, which is available Monday to Friday 9:00 am to 8:00 pm EST, reduced hours on Saturday and closed on Sunday. For other direct support options, we did not find a direct email, a chat, or a support portal.
On the self support side, we did find some FAQ’s, along with videos, and a customer portal. We did not find other content, such as online guides, whitepapers, or a blog.
Medical Guardian: Final verdict
Despite appearing like just another medical alert company, Medical Guardian stands out due to the addition of the Freedom Guardian smartwatch and the Family Guardian activity tracking system. These unique features set Medical Guardian apart from its competitors.
When you combine these options with impressive US-based emergency call performance that is quite fast, the choice of Medical Guardian becomes compelling.
The pricing of the plans needs to be more transparent, but we like the wide choice of devices from this provider. It is no wonder Medical Guardian has earned recognition as one of the leading medical alert systems in the market, and should be considered for your needs.