Staff Alarm Systems
choice, but concise pictures speak louder than words, so a simple overview that indicates to an operative that there are no active alarms or fault conditions is fundamental. Alarms and faults should be clearly displayed as they occur, and provide the operator with clear and succinct information. To which individuals, and how information about alarms and faults are transmitted, is determined by the critical message path that any particular system deploys, but irrespective of the technology, the message should be capable of being received within a matter of seconds, no matter how many recipients are involved.
EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES Future staff alarm system designs will need to consider the development of emerging technologies, different types of messaging platforms, and the potential for multi-function devices. Ultimately, whether an alarm is triggered by an automatic or manual action is determined by the user’s perceived risk, but advances in technology are starting to allow for the monitoring of environmental and biological conditions, and not just mechanical ones. As the power of processors and the miniaturisation of components increases, these devices will become ever more lightweight, complex, and potentially multi-functional. The type of activation device itself also benefits from these advances – recent such advances that have brought considerable in-use benefits have included the advent of ‘smartphones’, ‘WLAN’, and Bluetooth type communicators, while even the traditional ‘PTT’ radios can now be connected to networks and the internet. The first principle of any activation device should, however, always be its ability to generate a duress call.
CHANGING COMMUNICATION PATHS The communications path for the transportation and delivery of information to systems infrastructure is also changing; the emergence of site-wide network infrastructure, wireless LANs, GPRS, and cellular operators, means that there is now a choice between dedicated and shared architecture, the option to have cross-platform devices communicating with each other, and the ability to have a unified user interface bringing multiple systems and devices together ‘under one umbrella’. The first requirement for any staff alarm system should nevertheless always be its ability to receive a critical alarm and distribute it accordingly. Aggression towards healthcare staff is an
ever-increasing problem, and, although many studies have considered it, it is worth noting how much levels of such aggression vary among the different professional disciplines and locations within the health service. In addition, studies often fail to include all forms of aggression, and may, for instance, exclude instances of threatening behaviour and verbal aggression. Academic research that has evaluated
physical assault, threatening behaviour, and verbal aggression from patients and visitors towards general hospital staff, shows that aggression in healthcare environments is widespread. Statistics on aggression towards
26 THE NETWORK January 2015
The Atus ‘family’ of devices incorporates personal security, ensuring that only one critical communications device needs to be carried.
healthcare staff in a UK general hospital published in an article published in the January 2004 issue of the Journal of Clinical Nursing,1 for example, showed that that, in the preceding year, 23% of staff had experienced threatening behaviour from patients, and 15.5% from visitors. Over 68% reported verbal aggression, with over 25% experiencing it more regularly than monthly. By department, over 43% of staff and enrolled nurses, 36% of surgical staff, and over 30% of Accident and Emergency staff, reported assaults. Other nursing grades and healthcare professions all reported levels of physical assault in excess of 20%.
SHAPING THE USER EXPERIENCE When aggregated, these figures demonstrate the high levels of victimisation that hospital staff experience on a regular basis. The decisions we therefore make about shared or dedicated devices and system infrastructure will shape both the user experience, and our ability to provide staff with confidence in the systems we have chosen to deploy for their benefit. Our understanding of the duress they face, and the
Darren Swindlehurst
Darren Swindlehurst has worked in the security sector for over two decades, and was originally an NHS estates manager in South Manchester. After periods working overseas, and spending 10 years as the sales and marketing manager of a UK nurse call company, he joined Atus Systems in January 2012 as MD. He oversees all aspects of the company’s day-to-day business in the UK, and in particular new product development, in line with customers’ expectations and market changes. He is currently involved in the development of the new Atus SmartBadge, and the ‘next generation’ of Atus personal security systems. Atus’s ‘rich history’ goes back to the 1960s, when Philips started its on-site paging
business in Breda in Netherlands, a business that in 2002 was acquired by Bosch, and then, in September 2010, by Atus, when it became an independent company, allowing it to focus directly on critical communication solutions.
‘The communications path for the transportation and delivery of information to systems infrastructure is also changing’
design of the systems we provide, is ultimately the test of this – irrespective of the technology used. So, at the heart of every staff alarm system should be a robust activation device that is intuitive to operate, provides clear and concise information to operators, and quick, clear, and unambiguous messages to responders.
REFERENCE 1 Winstanley S, Whittington R. Aggression towards healthcare staff in a UK general hospital among professions and departments. J Clin Nurs 2004: 13 (1): 3-10.
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