Designing Safe Reliable Systems

Mental Health Hospitals

Such hospitals can be especially dangerous for healthcare employees and visitors alike. It’s difficult enough to work in and A & E Dept on a Saturday night for nurses but mental health environments can often be on an entirely different level. Aggression and violence are quite common in psychiatric wards – especially in psychiatric intensive care units and also amongst detained patients with psychotic symptoms and personality issues. In general, the use of restraint and seclusion does not always help in reducing the aggression levels and it may often exacerbate or maintain the aggression and violence levels in the unit.

For this reason, it’s important when designing a nurse call and staff attack system for hospitals that many considerations are taken into account.

Keeping it Low Profile

In almost all cases, it’s always wise to select a system where the call can be raised discreetly – so not to potentially raise the level of tension with the person that is threatening you. A portable trigger with at least two levels of alarm – assistance and attack are often chosen by our clients, also because they are worn on one’s belt and can be discreetly and quickly activated.

Knowing the Precise Location of The Person that Needs Help

In Mental health, it’s vital that you know exactly where the person that is needs help is. Employing nebulous location technologies such as WIFI or RF is not really appropriate in most cases. IR gives good enough location and is sufficient in most cases. However, in some cases. Our clients prefer a combination of IR and RF for added peace of mind. (as the RF signal cannot be blocked however unlikely it is that an IR signal would not bounce off the ceilings and set an alarm off.)

Automatic Nurse Presence

A common request in mental health is nurse call automation. As nurses enter the room, their ‘presence’ is automatically registered and time stamped. This active ‘presence’ condition will automatically reset as they leave the room.

Real Time Location for Staff, Patients and Assets

Knowing the location in real time of your colleagues is important in mental health. So too is it important to locate vital machines when needed. Badges should always include a staff attack button for added safety.

Fixed Points

Sometimes, it’s also appropriate to allow for fixed panic alarm points too – for added safety. Many specifiers will request key switch operated nurse call and reset points (to prevent abuse) that work with a timer. If a member of staff visits a room but does not leave within a designated period – then an alarm is raised and her/his location is made known and colleagues can be immediately alerted to assist.

Stronger Build Spec

In mental health, it’s very often the case that we are requested for more fortified nurse call points made out of stainless steel with tamperproof screws. For immediate notification to colleagues in the vicinity that someone needs assistance, we even supply overdoor lights complete with stainless steel covers and tamperproof screws – to protect them against damage – vital considerations.

Security Feature – Escorting

By strategically adding LF wall mounting units on all exits, the system is able to identify if an authorised person is escorting the patient out of the exit. A member of staff wearing the RFID staff tags are then accepted by the system as authorised to leave the monitored zone with patients – without activating an alarm. For audit purposes, be assured that all such escort activities are automatically captured in the EIRIS database to be referred to at a later time.

Letting your Colleagues Know You Need Help

Commonly, our alarms return to a corridor display with optional software, sometimes with a map to identify peoples location. However, for an even faster response, you chose consider adding a buzzer pager system too so that colleagues can receive and respond to calls promptly and wherever they are or adding speech to your system for inter-department communication. Overdoor lights that can be configured to show distinct colour and sound combinations are a good idea too.

Anti-Ligature Features

WCs can be especially dangerous places. We always supply WC anti ligature pull cords with built in anti-ligature features as people may try to cause harm to themselves. Our standard version will simply stretch when pulled when excessive weight or alternatively another version  has been tested on a tensile gauge to snap when pulled with an excessive force.

Integration

In addition, our system will interface with existing security systems such as access control and CCTV. A common request is for escorting – where an authorised member of staff wearing the ELPAS staff tag is accepted by the system as authorised to leave the monitored zone with patients – without activating an alarm.

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