A Preview: Keeping Staff Members Safe and Sound

8/16/2024

Paul Sarnese is a veteran in the healthcare safety and security space, with decades of experience helping healthcare leaders fine-tune their operations to create a safer, more efficient environment for the betterment of staff and patients. He has built a career identifying bottlenecks, establishing safety standards and integrating technology into the role of safety, security and emergency preparedness. As workplace violence against caregivers increased more than 115% in 2021¹, his passion for healthcare safety and security could not be more amplified.

His recent publication in Security Magazine outlined how investing in—and optimizing—the right technology can help keep staff members safe. To help address workplace violence in healthcare, his key technology takeaways include considering:

• The existing infrastructure. A real-time locating system (RTLS) used for nurse call and/or asset tracking can be the right platform for emergency response application, reducing spend and training needs.
• The breadth. Full, real-time visibility to not only the staff member in duress, but all staff members on the floor is paramount in your RTLS. The more informed security teams are of a situation, the more efficiently they can respond.
• The metrics. Analytics that offer insight into who, when, where and what can help leaders identify patterns and trends, which can inform remediation strategies.
• The integration possibilities. Initiating a duress is the first step, but to enact a safer environment, leaders must think about what happens next—and how to automate it. Protocols like triggering an access control or video management system from a duress alert are a force multiplier for enhanced safety.  
• The ease-of-use. Overly complicated, inaccessible or inconvenient technology doesn’t do your staff any good. Simple and easy to use technology gets their buy-in and increases utilization.
  

For a more detailed look into Paul’s considerations for implementing the right technology to help keep staff out of harm’s way, check out the full article in Security Magazine.

 To learn more about safety solutions powered by RTLS, visit midmark.com/staffduress.