Paramedics Cry for Help Falls on Deaf Ears

Paramedics are the unsung heroes of our communities who spend their lives helping those in need. Unfortunately, they are often called to very confronting situations where alcohol and drugs are involved. This can result in unreasonable aggression and attacks on paramedics- as was recently the case with Ambulance Tasmania.

In early July 2012 two ambulance officers were called to a scene in the South of Tasmania, where bystanders began verbally abusing officers and smashing ambulance windows. The officers took refuge in their vehicle and hit the duress alarm, but no-one came. Why? The alarm system failed and the message was never received by the communications centre.

Tasmanian health union member Tim Jacobson said, "in this particular case it's [duress system] fallen over, it's fallen over previously and obviously Ambulance Tasmania needs to ensure that the system is stable”. According to Jacobson, ambulance officers are reporting incidents weekly.

As a duress provider, Integrated Wireless (IW) offer a complete range of duress alarm solutions, including wide-area duress. This particular solution uses GPS satellite coordinates to attain location and the device enables voice communications. All data is time and date stamped for post-incident reporting.

IW's Teltonika- wide-area duress solution

For more information and to speak to one of our sales representatives across Australia, click here!

Ekahau Release New L4 WiFi Tag

International Real Time Location Systems (RTLS) provider Ekahau have recently released the L4 WiFi computer tag, designed to prevent laptop loss and theft.

Business critical and sensitive information is often stored on laptops. Whether it's patient healthcare information or news regarding government entities, vital information can be lost and it happens more regularly than you think.

This new L4 tag fits into the ExpressCard slot of the laptop and contains a built in rechargeable battery which runs for weeks even when the laptop is tuned off. When the laptop is on, the battery is charged to full capacity.

The L4 tag comes equip with a motion sensor and tamper proofing, sending an alarm to appropriate stakeholders when the tag is removed from the device.

As this tag uses any existing WiFi network to operate and track the device when it leaves predefined boundaries, no additional infrastructure is required keeping costs to a minimum.

For product pricing and specifications, contact us!

Ascom Acquire GE Healthcare's Nurse Call Division

Ascom, a leading provider of mission-critical communications worldwide, has broadened it's empire through acquiring GE Healthcare's Nurse Call business in June of this year.

GE Healthcare is a leading nurse call supplier in North America with revenues in excess of USD 20 million in 2011. This acquisition gives Ascom the opportunity to penetrate the lucrative North American market as well as gain intellectual property through retaining existing GE employees. As a result, a combined offering can be created with features and functionality more closely aligned to customer needs.

Fritz Mumenthaler, CEO of Ascom, says: “Ascom is very pleased to have acquired a business with such a good strategic fit. This transaction represents the next step in building and strengthening the leading position of our Wireless Solutions Division in the healthcare communications market”.

For a full range of Ascom products distributed throughout Australia, click here.

Mental Health- Challenges and Solutions

Integrated Wireless (IW) legitimised itself as the top duress provider throughout Australia at the recent 3^rd Annual Mental Health Units (MHU) Conference at the Sydney Harbour Marriott in June.

This conference focused on achieving best practice in MHUs and challenges faced in this environment- such as risk management, nursing recruitment and retention, reducing restraint and safety of women in inpatient settings.

IW were the only emergency wireless vendor present at this conference, highlighting our passion and dominance in this market. Many of the challenges mentioned above can be solved through a complete emergency duress solution increasing both perceived and actual safety for nursing staff. 

This event was highly successful and gave IW the opportunity to touch base with several existing clients from hospitals such as Hornsby, Manly, St George, Shell Harbour, Burwood and Southern Health. This proved very worthwhile to not only re-assure customers of our presence, but to hold discussions regarding future solutions for their particular facility.

Thank you to all those who took the time to stop and chat and we look forward to further developing our relationship over the coming years.

Those interested in the solutions deployed through the above hospitals, click here!

Prison Officers At Risk

It is no secret that prison officers operate in dangerous environments and are placed in life-threatening situations in the blink of an eye. It is also no secret that not enough is done to protect these officers.

In January 2012, Fulham Prison was the site of a riot involving prisoners armed with gym equipment, iron bars and other tools. In 2011, Risdon Prison in Tasmania fell victim to similar circumstances. Unfortunately these situations continue to arise and prison officers must be protected. In fact, it can often take a crucible event such as this for management to take note of and act on security measures.

Integrated Wireless provide alarm management solutions where duress alarms can be raised one of four ways:

1. Push-button
2. No-movement
3. Man-down
4. Pull-cord

Our solutions will also monitor the time taken by staff members to travel between location points on a pre-defined route to indicate whether a staff member's routine has been interrupted. The result of said situations will be time and date stamped for post-incident reporting.

For those interested in preventative management and staff protection solutions, click here!

Nurses Fear for Safety

In December 2011, mentally ill 12-18 year olds were due to move from Footscray into a new psychiatric ward as part of a $1 billion facility upgrade at the Royal Children's Hospital (RCH), Melbourne.

Shortly before the move the nursing staff concluded the ward to be unsafe and felt they could and would not work in a potentially dangerous environment. An article by The Age states, “They [nurses] claim security staff has been halved and personal panic alarms do not work, potentially putting nurses at risk when trying to restrain violent adolescents”.

The 16-bed Banksia ward was designed under the “least restrictive environment” approach, as specified by the Victorian Mental Health Act, taking away lock-up enclosures to avoid imitating a prison. As patients saw this as a positive, nurses immediately saw the potential danger associated with the plan and demanded a safe working environment with active duress alarms before moving into the ward.

Integrated Wireless (IW) were given the opportunity to showcase to RCH our unique offering currently in place at Dandenong Hospital. Based on the success reached there and throughout many sites Australia-wide, RCH awarded IW the business. After putting in place an Ekahau RTLS tracking system with to-the-second updates and Ascom i62 handheld devices with duress functionality, the nursing staff felt at ease and the move was complete early 2012.

The Royal Children's Hospital now have over 600 i62 handsets throughout the hospital and our ongoing support should any problems arise.

Click here for a complete list of products and services.

Student Security

Integrated Wireless (IW) attended the 4^th Annual Campus and Student Security Conference late May which provided a great opportunity to network with security representatives and general management from the education sector throughout APAC.

Student security is a growing concern throughout Australia, particularly in multi-building campus environments where facilities can often spread over streets and in some cases whole suburbs. Many universities, for example, comprise of multiple campuses that can be well over an hour from one another. The question remains- how can management successfully communicate to a wide audience both on and off campus in an emergency situation?

This question was posed multiple times throughout the conference and is a problem faced by many. IW specialise in mass-communications to better communicate with stakeholders in lock-down and evacuation situations. We understand the need to not only deal with the situation at hand, but log every detail for post-incident reporting. We also understand budgetary contraints and therefore integrate with existing infrastructure and 3^rd party systems (fire panels, EWIS systems, etc.) rather than force an unnecessary replacement of investments.

With successful deployments Australia-wide and knowledge from challenges overcome to date, IW were able to discuss in depth solutions to suit potential client requirements and have been given the opportunity for further review in coming weeks.

Click here for more information and contact details.