The official protocol of LifeLine is to call the people that the customer puts on a Call List, in the order that they appear, to assist the customer.in case no one can be reached or if there is an injury, ONLY THEN they are to call an ambulance.
The last two times my that my 83 year old father, who has Parkinson's Disease, contacted them the ambulance was dispatched unnecessarily. This ties up the crew (our small town has only one ambulance) if there's a real emergency. This also causes my father, who's on a fixed income, to be charged a pretty stiff ambulance service fee just to have someone help him get back on his feet.
I live only a few blocks from my father. The time before today when I was contacted I told them I would take care of him. I arrived at the same time as the ambulance did, which I did not request. I called them that night to make sure it didn't happen again. Today they called me after the ambulance was already there, without even trying to contact me first.
The first time this happened I called to complain and was promised it wouldn't happen again. When it occurred the second time in less than a month, I called again. After a lengthy discussion as I tried to explain to the problem to customer service, I was repeatedly assured it won't happen again, same as when I called the first time. Then I was told "I'm not going to do anything but apologize". At this point I hung up.
Their apologies won't pay my father's ambulance bills, which ate up more than half of his income this month. The mistake was theirs, and my father shouldn't have to pay several hundred dollars for their inability to follow their own protocols.
If the ambulance keeps showing up, someone will report him as being a danger to himself and some well-meaning public official will force him into a nursing home. To remain independent in his own apartment is why he got a LifeLine to begin with. Should we pay for a service who's negligence will land him in a nursing home unnecessarily and against his will?
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