Body Guard

Hungary

1995

The service's main objective is the older person’s safety and independent living, as well as the informal carer’s quality of life. The service aims to improve the care recipient’s independence and self-confidence and to allow informal carers to reconcile caring tasks and to increase their quality of life.

The Hungarian-owned firm, founded in 1995, at first specialized in health services such as remote health monitoring. After 1997 they became part of eldercare. The emergency alarm was incorporated into the Social Welfare Act in the late 90s as a complementary service of the mandatory social services (home help, meals). Its financial support by government is required by law. Local governments have had contracts with various companies and organizations providing emergency alarm ICT solutions, which was a good market opportunity for private companies, such as Body Guard, until 2009 when emergency alarm systems was taken out of the public eldercare. Currently, one third of all their clients are individuals (paying market rates).

The service intends to support the care recipient and his/her quality of care through appropriate and prompt emergency care, in order to enable older people to live alone, even if in a poor state of health or with a serious illness. It is also a great help for family caregivers.

 Care Recipients
 Informal carers
 Paid assistants
 Formal carers

Not Available

 Independent Living
 Information and learning for carers
 Personal Support and Social Integration for carer
 Care coordination

The service helps frail older people live independently. The following description refers to the alarm process:

1. 1. The signal button should be pressed on the remote control.

2. 2. After pressing the button, the call is automatically forwarded to the dispatch center, where it is answered by paramedical officers. All personal and medical data will be provided to the officer in charge.

3. 3. Within seconds the officer will call from the dispatch center to ask why the alarm was activated. The older person or the beneficiary should audibly explain why the alarm button was pressed on the remote control. If the dispatchers do not receive any response they will immediately notify the designated people and mobilize the ambulance service.

4. 4. When the dispatcher receives an answer, the officer will decide who to notify first. For example, if it’s sufficient to call a designated person only or if it’s necessary to immediately mobilize the ambulance.

5. 5. The people designated in the contract will be notified or if medical care is needed, the dispatcher will call the “Főnix” ambulance or any other ambulance service specified. In the countryside the client must specify the doctor or the ambulance service desired.

Furthermore, the company provides a new service of information and advice about health, legal and social issues for elderly, sick people and carers, through its website.

 

Technological requirements are a device worn around the wrist or the neck and phone connection (landline or mobile).

Both public and private

Public service funding: Government, Regional, Local Authorities, non-profit public entities

Not available

Private out of pocket: users pay the service by themselves

Not available

Subscription Process:

1. Sign the contract and pay the registration and installation fees beforehand, which cover the first month’s service fee and the installation of the device. The initial payment must be made in cash when signing the contract. The additional monthly fees can be paid by check or wire transfer.

2. The device will be installed at the older person’s house or at the beneficiary's home.

Installation Process:

1. The technicians will install the device on site then supply the remote transmitter to wear around the neck or on the wrist.

2. The technicians will set up the device on site and make test-calls with the remote transmitter from different positions in the apartment.

3. The technicians will synchronize the data with the dispatcher, and explain its proper use. After this briefing, the recipient can press the button to make a test emergency call.

4. In addition, the recipient is required to initiate a test call on a weekly basis, regardless of the acute medical condition. This is necessary to check that the device works, that a real alarm can be sent and that the previously described process can be initiated.

Eldercare was, and still is, provided by the public sphere and by families. The change in regulations may have a negative effect on the provider of the emergency alarm system since it was part of the basic service provided by local governments and had widespread use (with tens of thousands of devices). This could cause the demand in the social sector to shrink. Mapping of the needs of older people is restricted.

In the social sphere the recipient received the service free of charge or for a maximum of 2% of the person’s pension. The removal of the emergency alarm system from the range of basic public services, after 2009, could mean a restriction of economic resources. To counterbalance this, the role of the market sector should grow. At present, this is not a problem for the company, despite competition, as there has been a continuous development and expansion, so that it has not been necessary to raise prices.

€ 50,000 - 500,000

Not available

 Authorities
 Private Care Sector
 Health and Social Care Systems
 Third Sector
 Private Companies

Not available

Not involved

 Informal Carers
 Health Professionals
 Social Care Professionals
 Privately-Hired Care Assistants (inc. Migrant Care Workers)
 Volunteers

Technicians are also involved.

Technicians install the device and explain how to use it; they monitor that the device works properly.

Health and Social service professionals answer the emergency calls.

Not involved

5,001 - 10,000

10.000 users

The main promotion strategy is the website.

 

The service has a positive effect on the quality of life of:

- Informal carers, as it reconciles care and work, improves their social life and health as they are relieved from some caring tasks and alerted only in case of an emergency.

- Paid assistants, as it improves their social life and health.

- Elderly people, as it improves their health and social relationships as they are more self-confident and autonomous, even if they live alone.

Other benefit is enhancing the acceptability of the ICT of informal carers and aged care recipients.

(BGH, 2014)

The service positively impacts on:

- Private organisations that provide care, as it can help to save costs and optimize resources as they are timely alerted in case of an emergency.

- Companies and the labour market, as it may allow the informal carer to reconcile paid work and caring tasks, it is possible to avoid the added costs of replacing the worker who has to stay at home with the care recipient.

(BGH, 2014)

The service benefits the National Health Insurance Fund and social care services: since the health care and the social services have been playing a role, the service helps to save the costs of home caring and hospitalisation and is effective in informing and supporting informal carers and qualifying formal carers. In this way the service helps to optimise financial and human resources.

(BGH, 2014)

Strengths:

1. The service has a strong presence in social eldercare (in the case of moderately and older people with functional limitations (cognitive and/or physical and is also present in the market sector (16% of the 10,000 subscribers).

2. Recently the service expanded their services with a website offering advice and information.

3. One of the advantages of the system is the use of conventional telephones in addition to mobiles.

4. The service is well integrated into the social and health care systems.

Weaknesses:

1. The English webpage does not provide much information except for those described in the Business Plan and the offered Services section.

Opportunities:

1. As in the market sphere, the aged often reject ICT, because they do not feel the need for a technological device. However, the newly born web service with advices / information concerning health, medical, legal and social support is a good opportunity to improve the market presence and raise the profile of the company and its services.

Threats:

1. The service is funded in part by users, that pay for it. The eventual lack of acceptation of ICTs by old people, due to misinformation and lack of digital skills, could lead to a decrease of the demand from the market and to a crisis for the enterprise as consequence.

The scalability and transferability of this service are affected by the Hungarian Government’s Policies on the implementation of telemedicine. The choice to move the use of the ICT to the market sector has had a crucial impact on the development of the service.

In order to overcome the lack of public funding, Body Guard is constantly developing new services, such as the website that provides information (eg., medical and health assistance and advice for the aged and their informal carers). In addition, Bodyguard has appeared on the market with a service that provides protection against violence. So it has a good possibility to increase the number of its target users and expand.

At present the service has a national coverage.

In the social sphere the local governments were only able to provide (fund) a certain number of devices. In the case of further demand the aged had to buy the devices on the market. The public sector macro policy on eldercare is decisive for the use of ICT. The openness of the public sphere gave a big impetus by incorporating the home emergency alarm system into the mandatory service provided by local authorities. As a result, various ICT firms offering different solutions appeared in the public sphere. The change of eldercare policy at the macro level, instead of financing being required by law, will slow down this process as the market demand in Hungary, as in the majority of Eastern Europe countries, is much smaller.

As far as new plans for increasing the service’s scalability and transferability, the firm’s new web service could strengthen its market position.
 

 

Resources:

BGH (2014), English information, http://www.bgh.hu/english-information.html

Body Guard Hungary Kft.
Address: 1071 Budapest, VII. Peterdy utca 6.
Telephone: 0036 06 1 4333000

 

Tamás Takács, Director Body Guard Hungary

Address: 1063 Budapest, Szív u. 40

E-mail: fmarketing@bgh.hu,