Why Healthcare Facilities Need a Staff Duress System

Staff in hospitals, nursing homes, long term care centers, and other healthcare facilities can find themselves under duress in an instant. Too often than not, there is not much time between a threat and a full-scale assault. How can healthcare administrators better protect their workers at all times? A real-time location system (RTLS) with duress functionality designed to provide workers with peace of mind and administrators with real-time data about violent workplace events. 

When patients are stressed out, uncomfortable, or frustrated, the staff is left vulnerable and susceptible to verbal and potentially physical episodes. With a duress solution, you can enable staff with mobile panic buttons to discreetly alert others when a situation begins to spiral out of control. With the panic button located on their personal staff tag, it becomes easier than ever to notify security managers in a Code White situation. The alert will push an immediate location identifier, empowering a quicker response for assistance.

The Benefits of a Staff Duress Solution

• Speed up your hospital security's response time to incidents by allowing them to easily pinpoint the location of duress
• Provide staff with peace of mind, ultimately increasing employee satisfaction and improving staff retention
• Protect your facility's reputation in regard to crisis management and overall safety
• Reduce staff injuries, decreasing lost work time and associated healthcare expenses
• Avoiding costly lawsuits associated with Worker’s Compensation and Liability

Facts About Workplace Violence in Healthcare

• Almost half of emergency physicians & about 70% of emergency nurses have been physically assaulted at work - in a 12 month period.¹
• While the healthcare sector makes up just 9 percent of the overall U.S. workforce, it experiences nearly as many violent injuries as all other industries combined.²
• The average cost of turnover for a bedside RN is $44,400 and ranges from $33,300 to $56,000 resulting in the average hospital losing $3.6m – $6.1m.³
• According to the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP), nearly 7 out of 10 emergency physicians believe that emergency department violence is increasing.⁴

If you're interested in learning more about what RTLS as a staff duress system can do your facility, let's talk about setting up a demonstration! Together we can fuel process improvement efforts for better patient care and improved staff safety. 

1 https://www.emergencyphysicians.org/press-releases/2019/11-18-2019-emergency-physicians-and-emergency-nurses-unite-to-stop-ed-violence
2 https://electronichealthreporter.com/5-things-healthcare-organizations-need-to-know-about-triggering-a-duress-alert/
3 https://www.nsinursingsolutions.com/Documents/Library/NSI_National_Health_Care_Retention_Report.pdf
4 https://www.acep.org/administration/violence-in-the-emergency-department-resources-for-a-safer-workplace/