We have all laughed at the "I've fallen and can"t get up" line. But It was no joke for my elderly aunt. Naturally she lives alone and fortunately I insisted she get a senior monitoring system for my peace of mind. 
 She lives in a house that only has four steps leading down to the laundry room. While making her way down with a load of laundry, one piece feel to the floor and she tripped over it and landed on her butt.

At first she thought she was alright but soon discovered she couldn't stand up. We had neglected to put a phone in this room as she said she could have scooted over to it and called me for help. She had gotten in the habit of wearing her senior monitoring system every day so she was able to get help but they had to break in  her door to get to her. She wasn't very happy about that issue but I reminded her she could have been down for hours if she hadn't used the senior monitoring system. She said they were very helpful and friendly, responded immediately and had an excellent follow up procedure.

We chose AlertOne for our senior monitoring system but there are several good ones out there. It is definitely worth your time and effort to look into a system for your loved one.