Exciting news!
Last night I had the great pleasure of providing a security system for Rodrigo Rodriguex. Rodriguex operates Jhave Rafah Clinic and Ambulance Service (across from Mike's Global Grill). Wow was I impressed, not only is Rodrigo one of the nicest people I have met, but he truly cares about all of their patients and wants to provide a stocked ambulance with a new Defibrillator. Defibrillation is a common treatment for life-threatening cardiac dysrhythmias and ventricular fibrillation by providing electrical energy to the heart. The clinic is super clean and stocked with a EKG and many other life saving medical equipment.
Rodrigo speaks Spanish and some English, so a good idea is to learn how to say your address in Spanish. Like some of us, he was also a victim to a robbery while he was at work. He, is all about the community working together and would like to be more pro-active with his English speaking neighbors, we will help him with that latter providing a translator to communicate with his neighbors in a neighborhood that has seen several break ins.
The doctors are knowledgeable and caring, I can not say enough how clean the facility is with many products at the clinic. We have found our family a new doctor and clinic, I can not say enough of how wonderful the clinic is.
For the ladies, they even have Botox and other skin products.
The Ambulance Service is open 24/7!
730-9404
cell 6728-3098
Replies
Totally agree 100% with everything you said...it is just a start to the most severe situations. Rodrigo has gone to homes where older folks have been lying on the floor for hours with the phone in another room. So this service could really help those people and others. I really appreciate your informative comments. Any comments are welcomed.
Both Rodrigo and myself are very excited to try to help the people that are living alone or with medical conditions.
Update:
First this is not intended to replace any existing service. This service is for chronic medical conditions or elderly living alone, that would be in a life threatening situation if they did not have the advanced medical equipment that is on this ambulance that Jhave Rafah Clinic provides.
1. Yes insurance is excepted, yet a medical alert service would have to be on the policy to cover the $20/ month.
2. Mandatory medical check ups will be required and transportation to the doctors could be provided if the person has no driver, every 3-4 months. A file will be kept of each Medical Alert Patient, that will include a map and important information.. We hope this may give some red flags if someone is having medical signs, prior to a major medical situation.
3. Emergency medical house calls will also be provided. In other words you do not need to go to the hospital if you just needed a house call. We are also discussing having one room with overnight care at the clinic.
4. A list of services and prices will be established.
5 A Medical Alarm and possibly a GPS Tracking unit (for homes with out a address). will be required. Equipment must be set up and purchased or leased and maintained by Safe Home Security.
6. A second ambulance is high on the wish list, and will limit the amount of people that can be registered. Please people with serious medical situations or elderly living alone apply at this time.
7. The system will be checked every 3 -4 months and can be brought to office visit or we can come to your home. Every registered person will have another system reserved in their name in case of any problems.
8. At this time we are looking for 3 people to start this medical alert program. Anyone interested can send me a personal email at ecoquestpanama@gmail.com
9. The cost will be modest as this is meant to save lives and help people. $20/ month plus the Alarm, GPS depends on location and a health check up at the office.
10. A home visit also will be made by the ambulance driver. A map to your property will be issued at that first trip.
The medical alarm can have a built in smoke alarm, a reminder alert to take medicine and other important features. We will be ordering 6 systems tomorrow, for 3 people. So each person will have a back up...just in case.
This is a new idea we just had last night, so please do not beat me up to bad Ningers...
Wow. This was a discussion of interest until I read your latest response. It seems to have transgressed from a business of Jhave Rafah to a business of Safe Home Panama. Who is he, who is they, and who is we?
Bad Ningers aren't born bad -- they just get that way after they've bought too much snake oil, scorpion ointment, and cloud forest life-rejuvinating botanicals.
Not mandatory suggested and recommended, think they may be $15 or $20 per visit. Susan and Pat.
Bill you got me at a bad time, so you know what forget the whole damn idea. I tried to do something to help and instead I am dealing with crappy comments. So forget it....go buy some snake oil hope it helps if you have a heart attack.
I was planning on selling the systems for almost cost plus shipping. Considering all their equipment they were also doing a service for about cost and were actually looking into another ambulance.
Everyone, sorry I am done, no medical alert service at this time!!
On the four occasions I have called Rodny for an ambulance, on behalf of others, it was the Bomberos who quickly responded, and on each occasion the ambulance arrived with a paramedic.
We currently have a community 24/7 Emergency Hotline, to which many of us contribute, that addresses the problems of language and location. When people register, they are asked to supply detailed directions to their home or a map which can enable the bilingual operator to direct the required emergency service.
Judy, if I'm not mistaken, your experience with the ambulance was quite some time ago now. These days the Bomberos are a busy bunch, often spending time undergoing new training and doing community outreach work. As stated previously, the Emergency responses by them that I've had experiences with by calling Rodny, have always been very good.
Of course any additional qualified health services are beneficial to the community, but we do have the Emergency Hotline asset available.
Maybe we can get all on board, if it is broken leg Bomberos, Heart Attack Jhave? The time I observed the ambulance, Dr. Chen got on board and there was no equipment and the EMT's were holding the gurney from sliding. Glad to hear your calls were better, Keith.
I do not think the life alert service is for the general population, more for the elderly or those with a chronic medical condition.
I just contacted one of distributers and the Medical Alarms are great. They remind the person to take their medicine, alarm for fire, gas, water, monitoring and life alert necklace now waterproof and very inexpensive.
So time is of the utmost importance Susan? Yikes, so a person with a heart condition should have their own defibrillator? A spouse or neighbor should be trained for using it? Ideas Susan?
You're lucky. I did not have that experience. They wouldn't come, because the powers in Panama City told them not to go to houses on emergency calls, but instead to use their resources to fight brush fires. They really had their priorities screwed up. After 3 hours, I finally got the Dolega ambulance, a superior vehicle and crew all around.
I will try to get all the information for you today. One thing I do know is the defibrillator is portable. So if someone was having a heart attack it is useful to have knowledgeable folks in an ambulance while in route. My 95 year old grandmother is still with us thanks to a defibrillator in the ambulance on the way to Boston. In fact they had to bring her back 3 times so this is a huge advancement for our community.
I do think there will be a monthly fee for the life alert service and the ambulance, maybe $20/ month. It would also require a drive to the house to make sure of the location. I am thinking SHS would provide a GPS Tracking unit to all the homes that had a chronic patient that was signed up for the service. Then a smart cell phone could find the home in case the original driver was unavailable. The waterproof tracking GPS would be one time fee ($125) as you would buy it outright and it could be used if other emergencies vehicles can jump on board ( Police, ect).
Routine visits to the clinic may be a good idea to monitor vital signs, that way if someone was having small signs everyone could be prepared and have a back up plan.
SHS would also monitor the electrical part of the system and check it every 3 months, making sure everything was functional. It would be important to have back up equipment available (and batteries) in case the panic device needs to be replaced. The necklaces can get wet and need to be replaced. I would also think we would need a cap on the number of people per ambulance signed up for service, so it is available when needed. I must say that if I was having a heart attack I would prefer this ambulance to the ones that do not even have a band aide. I wonder how many heart attack victims they loose on route to David?
We are still in the beginning stages as we just came up with the idea last night. Thank you all for your positive ideas, this is a step in the right direction.
This ambulance has been part of a previous ning post, and the fee was $200 for one call. I don't know if the cost is still the same.