BRADENTON, Fla.--In an letter sent to dealers in the last week, GE Security announced that, effective immediately, it is discontinuing CareGard, its personal emergency response product line. "What's behind this decision is our desire to put our focus and resources on more visionary products and more technology-leveraged solutions so that we can support the continued emergence of interactive services," said Steve Hill, spokesman for GE Security.

GE began offering its CareGard product in the late 1990s, according to Hill.

Andy Schoonover, president of VRI, a healthcare services company that has approximately 40,000 PERS units nationwide, received the notification from GE earlier this week and said he was disappointed that GE had chosen to discontinue CareGard. "It's a good product and one that was becoming more popular in the industry, we sold a ton of them," he said. Schoonover said VRI started working with GE about a year ago.

Despite immediate discontinuation of the product, GE Security will continue to fulfill purchase orders for CareGard until Sept. 30, 2008, said Hill. In addition, GE will also continue providing technical support for the CareGard products and "continue offering support to our dealers," said Hill.