Montélimar Hospital

Addressing violence against staff members with a tracking solution

Un médecin et une infermière transporte un patient
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Protecting hospital staff who often have to deal with anxious, impatient, and sometimes even aggressive patients and visitors

 

In Summer 2019, Montélimar Hospital, asked us to think about a solution to address a major issue in its emergency department: how to deal with violence against staff members. As a result, a staff safety solution (also known as Staff Serenity) was created in joint development between the hospital's field teams and RFiD Discovery France (formerly Apitrak), who worked together to ensure the safety of the hospital’s night-time emergency medical team.

Challenges

Emergency services are subject to reception protocols that are often a source of anxiety and discomfort for patients and those accompanying them. The statistics are alarming. According to a 2019 report of the National Monitoring Centre of Violence in the Health Sector, 23,360 cases of violence were reported in 2018 in France. This will ultimately have economic drawbacks resulting in sick leave and absenteeism among clinical staff, which could result in a loss of income for the hospital due to a decreased ability to provide healthcare services. Without an effective warning system, the security services of GHPP Montélimar would not be able to intervene quickly to defuse tensions as soon as they arise.

Background

Having been a customer of RFiD Discovery France (formerly Apitrak) for many years, the GHPP in Montélimar was already benefiting from the company’s Asset Tracking solution, which allows the geolocation of medical devices in real time. Frédéric Chapon, the hospital's biomedical engineer, and his team were entirely satisfied with the solution.

Following a discussion about the Asset Tracking solution between Frédéric and his colleague Joël Duguet, GHPP's works, technical and safety engineer, the idea to this innovative solution immediately sprang to Joël's mind: the same technology (Bluetooth Mesh) should be used to reduce the number of cases of violence at the Montélimar hospital's emergency room.

The solution had to meet a very specific set of requirements:

a nurse with a patient
  • Equip nursing staff and doctors with a device that can guarantee better safety, especially during night shifts
  • Provide a real-time alert and geolocation in case of assault
  • Enable the hospital's security service to intervene rapidly in the event of an incident
  • Provide a better cost-benefit ratio compared to existing solutions on the market
  • Guarantee the privacy of users
  • Improve working conditions and quality of service
 

Joël Duguet, work, technical and safety engineer at GHPP, comments:

"We needed to safeguard our staff in certain areas of the hospital. The Staff Serenity solution allows staff to activate badges when the situation starts to get out of hand. Now the security service can intervene more quickly and control the situation.”

 

How does-it work?

Badge anti-agression Staff Serenity
System responsiveness: click and alert
 
The Staff Safety solution is designed to prevent the escalation of incidents. The button on the badge must be pressed in anticipation of any possible tension. This alerts security services immediately.
 
Agents de sécurité travaillant avec la solution Straff Serenity
View the location of the assault
 
When no incident is reported, the staff location is not recorded by the software.  However, as soon as a badge is activated, the bearer is located in real-time. In addition, warning lights installed at the reception desk, in the security centre and in the break rooms change from green to red and emit an audible alarm.
 
Gyrophare allumé en vert
Fixed equipment
 
Fixed Bluetooth readers are required to use the staff safety system. These so-called anchors and gateways are installed in the relevant hospital areas and warning stations with light and sound are installed in key areas to alert staff to an incident. Touch tablets provide a permanent view of the software which within seconds displays the location of a potential assault.
 

Key Features

  • Real-time geolocation
  • Privacy: tracking on-click only
  • Call option on phone in case of alarm
  • Compatible with other RFiD Discovery solutions
  • Visual and audio alerts
  • Convenient and discreet to wear
  • Customisable
  • IP67 waterproof

The benefits of using a Staff Safety system in the emergency department of Montélimar Hospital

Staff Serenity proved to be the most cost-effective solution compared to available solutions on the market. Today, the Hospital Group Portes de Provence is able to guarantee the safety of its staff in the targeted departments, thus improving the quality of care provided. On-call staff, in particular, can work safely. The security services are alerted more quickly in the event of tension. As a result, situations can be quickly controlled and defused without resorting to harsh measures.