Rescue Alert's History

In August 1981, Readers Digest© published a story titled "Tap once for Yes." This article, about a 57 year old stroke victim communicating on the telephone, inspired Dr. Lon H. Kennard, Duane Hall, and Richard Bangerter to develop an emergency communication system, based in users homes, capable of using existing telephone service lines. The result of their efforts was SOSTEN (Latin for and pronounced as SUSTAIN). SOSTEN was a "smart", stand alone system. It had the ability to prerecord personal messages, dial telephone numbers, detect answer tone, busy, or no answer, and did not require monitoring. Competitive systems being developed at the same time did not offer any of these advanced features, and typically used in-house personnel at hospitals to provide monitoring for clients.

In 1986, in answer to the needs of the new medical alert market, Richard Bangerter incorporated Mytrex, Inc (DBA Rescue Alert), and began development on a new type of medical alert system. Building on the the advanced features of SOSTEN, Bangerter designed the RA100. Bangerter also designed a monitoring system that included a patented answer detection system, custom software, and a proprietary modem. The result was the Rescue Alert Automated Monitoring System, which was the fastest and most reliable monitoring service available. Further upgrades over the following years included the RA150, RA200, and RA300 models.

In 1996, Rescue Alert engineers carefully weighed each aspect of Rescue Alert systems to improve speed, accuracy, reliability, and affordability. The most noticeable change was the inclusion of two-way voice technology in the new RA300V. The two-way voice system allowed for immediate, hands free communication between a subscriber and a monitoring facility. In conjunction with the RA300V design, Rescue Alert engineers designed and built the equipment and software necessary to operate the Rescue Alert Emergency Response Center.

In 2000 and 2001, Rescue Alert engineers designed the fifth generation of Rescue Alert medical alarm systems, the RA400. This product included an extremely high performance transmitter and receiver, and many other features not found anywhere else in the market. Rich in features, and offering a variety of options to assist both subscribers and service personnel; to date, over 60,000 RA400s have been sold. The RA400 is currently being monitored throughout the United States.

The success of the RA400 has been complimented by the service provided by Rescue Alert staff. The heart and soul of the Rescue Alert operations is, without question, the Emergency Response Center. Intense effort is expended in recruiting staff who exhibit exceptional public consciousness, multi-tasking, and problem solving skills, along with many other attributes. The staff is then placed in a highly focused 100 hour training program. Strict supervision fine tunes the training for an additional 80 hours before any staff sits independently at a console to process an alarm. Rescue Alert's highly trained staff, and custom designed engineering has allowed for our unprecedented capability to process each and every alarm that comes into the Response Center.

Today Rescue Alert continues to grow and develop in serving the expanding needs of the emergency communication market (see map). As a result, Rescue Alert provides the most comprehensive and advanced medical alert system available on the market today. Functional design, ease of use, value added features and services, and an intense focus on the needs of the users continue to contribute to the success of Rescue Alert today. Rescue Alert has been in business as a medical alert company for over 21 years, and its founders have been serving the needs of the emergency communications community for over 27 years.