PLYMOUTH MEETING, Pa. — Duane Reade drug stores and Albertsons food/drug stores have begun rolling out Medical Alarm Concepts Holdings’ MediPendant medical alarm system.

Medical Alarm Concepts said that under the distribution pact with Duane Reade, announced this week, the metropolitan New York drug chain will offer MediPendant in all of its 257 stores as well as through the DuaneReade.com web site.

A spokesman for the Plymouth Meeting, Pa.-based manufacturer said Thursday that MediPendant is available now in some Duane Reade stores and will be offered in all of its locations, in the pharmacy area, once the rollout is completed.

"We are pleased to have partnered with such a well-established organization for our launch into the pharmacy category. This is a great opportunity for us," Medical Alarm Concepts president Ronnie Adams said in a statement. "We believe that the MediPendant is a perfect product to be offered through drug stores and pharmacies in grocery stores."

MediPendant is a medical alarm/alert system — also known as a personal emergency response system (PERS) — that gives users 24×7 access to help at the press of a button. According to Medical Alarm Concepts, the product is the only monitored medical alarm on the market that enables users to speak and listen to the operator directly through the pendant to communicate with the monitored call center.

In the distribution agreement with Albertsons, unveiled in mid-March, MediPendant will be offered in various locations throughout the Supervalu Inc. supermarket chain’s stores, including the pharmacy department. Albertsons has more than 460 stores in Nevada, southern California and the northwestern United States.

Albertsons’ MediPendant offering also will include one free month of monitoring services and an associated lockbox device.

"The MediPendant lockbox device is very similar to lock boxes used in the real estate industry, in that it hangs on the front door and contains a key to the residence," explained Medical Alarm Concepts chief executive Howard Teicher. "The key to the home is accessed via a proprietary numerical code. The difference, however, is that with the Medical Alarm Concepts’ MediPendant lockbox, the EMT-certified operator can provide the access code to the ambulance personnel prior to arriving at the home. A lockbox enables the ambulance personnel to avoid having to break into the home or waste valuable time finding a source of entry. In other words, if the MediPendant device wearer is incapacitated or unresponsive, immediate access to the home can easily be managed without the need to rely on the home owner for entry."

Medical Alarm Concepts reported that it’s also in discussions with several other drug and grocery chains about carrying MediPendant.

"We are extremely excited about the exposure and mainstream visibility our MediPendant program will receive at this highly recognized national grocery store chain," Teicher said in a statement on the Albertsons agreement. "We expect this partnership will greatly increase our sales both for this year and beyond."