Safeguarding staff and patients at Capio Maria Clinic – Case Study

Background

Capio Maria Clinic in Stockholm, Sweden, is a drug and alcohol dependency treatment facility that offers both residential and day care services. Like any medical facility, excellent communications are vital for the successful operations of the clinic and due to the potentially challenging nature of this environment, it is essential that Capio Maria’s patients and staff are protected during any incident.

The Need
The legacy staff alert system at Capio Maria Clinic had a number of limitations in terms of operations, maintenance and expansion potential. The system was based on ultrasound receivers installed on a wired communication platform, with the location of the fixed receiver providing the staff positioning alarm. When an alarm was raised, staff across the site would be notified via a spoken message through strategically placed speakers. Though effective, it was very disruptive

The Clinic made the decision that it needed a modern approach to its Nurse Call and Staff Protection and discussed the requirements with LOTS Security AB, its selected supplier of critical communications since 1995. Following an in-depth consultation, LOTS Security specified Multitone’s two-way wireless Staff Protection and Nurse Call system, EkoTek.

The Solution
EkoTek was installed across seven wards, on four floors, through organised operational groups and zones, and encompassed 200 EkoTek messenger devices and over 400 network repeater beacons.

Peter Emanuelsson, Product Manager at LOTS Security, commented, “EkoTek is the perfect solution for this project as it provides a wireless network that is straightforward to install and covers all the critical wards and floors for staff protection. “Staff can call for help at the touch of a button, with a precise location given to the responder through the EkoTek self-healing mesh network. This ensures that a call for help is always available and can be summoned discreetly and rapidly.”

To meet existing staff expectations and to accommodate legacy practices of responding to audible alarms at the Clinic, the staff messenger devices have been tailored to provide audible alerts as well as text messages. This ensures the different call requests and responses are immediately recognisable depending on the alarm type – from a staff attack to a request for assistance or a patient call.

As well as locating staff when they make an attack alarm or assistance call, the repeater units also act as a Nurse Call point. This can either be via a call fob that is given to a patient, or via motion detectors, door alarms or other peripheral linked equipment.

The Result
The wireless EkoTek system gives staff far more freedom to move around the Clinic, whilst having the reassurance that they can summon help whenever required. Furthermore, the installation and maintenance of the system is far less disruptive to the operations of the facility.

The new messengers allow busy staff to differentiate the type of call (and level of severity) based on the sound patterns coming from the device, without the need to look at the display screen. This is especially useful for confirming when help has been dispatched to staff in a difficult or compromised position.

Peter Emanuelsson concluded, “The new EkoTek solution offers Capio Maria Clinic a robust, reliable and highly flexible wireless staff protection and Nurse Call system. Its location abilities and easy-to-use mobile devices help the facility to effectively ensure the safety of its patients and staff.”