Wandering Patient Found 200km From Home

According to a report published in March 2012 by the Australian Bureua of Statistics (ABS), deaths due to dementia have more than doubled in the last 10 years and is now the third leading cause of death in Australia. The toll taken on staff and families from wandering patients is immeasurable; independent of resulting fatalities.

Last Sunday 23^rd September, a man reliant on a walking frame was found nearly 200km from his Hobart nursing home (The Sunday Morning Herald). He suffers severe dementia and cannot tell police how he ended up wandering a South Launceston street in slippers in the rain.

The initial search was intensified as Police realised the man had missed his scheduled dose of insulin and was at risk of collapsing. When he was eventually noticed and tendered to by onlookers, Police were notified and according to Inspector Riley, “he didn't know where he was and he didn't know how he got there.”

A bus ticket was found in his pockets and relatives told police he had lived in Launceston 20 years ago, which may have been the catalyst for his actions. He was taken to Launceston General Hospital before being transported back to Hobart.

As dementia cases grow, so to will the number of missing residents and fatalities. Luckily there is a solution...

Integrated Wireless (IW) provide Wandering Resident solutions to help prevent the heart-ache associated with dementia. It's simple, affordable and effective. A patient band is attached to the resident who can roam freely around the facility. If this resident tries to abscond, dedicated RFID receivers placed on every door pick up the signal from the wrist band and generate an alarm. Staff and/or security can act immediately and the crises can be avoided. These bands contain tamper-proof technology, alerting necessary personnel if removed.

For more information regarding our Wandering Resident solutions, click here!

Infant Narrowly Avoids Abduction in New Zealand

According to The Telegraph, Neha Narayan, 24, has recently pleaded guilty to the High Court for kidnapping a baby from Auckland's Middlemore Hospital in January this year.

Narayan allegedly faked a pregnancy and asked her partner to drop her off at the hospital as she was in labour. She spent the following 3-4 hours roaming the maternity ward, arousing suspicion from staff on duty who alerted the police.

Narayan managed to snatch a baby and make it to the car-park where she was apprehended.

There are numerous stories similar to this and the effect on all involved – family and staff – are harrowing. Had staff been less wary or Narayan less suspicious, the result of this incident could have been much more severe.

Integrated Wireless (IW) understand these issues and provide Infant Protection Systems to several maternity hospitals. A dedicated security grade array of RFID receivers are distributed through the ward at every door. The tags worn by the babies generate an alarm when they come in proximity of the doors and notification is sent to appropriate personnel for immediate action . Inbuilt tamper detection ensures that tags cannot be easily removed or hidden from the system.

For more information surrounding Infant Protection solutions, click here!

Ascom Sign Retail Giant

This month Ascom have signed a significant 5-year deal to refresh the wireless telephone fleet of one of the UK's largest retailers in a deal that extended the mutual 20 year relationship.

Ascom understands retailers are under constant pressure to provide outstanding customer service and minimise business costs. With pressures being placed on ways to improve responsiveness and provide greater levels of efficiency, Ascom have helped by enabling Floor Managers, Department Managers and Floor Runners to be easily contacted whilst on the move.

The strategy includes upgrading to VoWiFi in the large stores with the Ascom i62 WiFi handset and the refreshing of the in situ DECT handsets at the remaining stores with the Ascom d81 handsets.

i62/d81

 The Ascom i62 phone was the first to handle 802.11 a/b/g and n. This handset supports voice over the WiFi network without degrading the performance of an existing .11n network capacity.

The Ascom d81 phone is Ascom's most robust handset yet. It can be used in the most rugged environments over a DECT network and features advanced functions such as a man-down and no-movement alarm.

Integrated Wireless are the sole distributors of Ascom products throughout APAC, providing 24x7 support to some of Australia's busiest hospitals, aged care facilities, retailers, educational institutions, corrective facilities and industrial giants.

 
For product and pricing information, click here!

BOC Requirements Met

Integrated Wireless (IW) have been working with BOC sites Australia-wide for many years to reduce risks associated with those employees working alone. BOC came to IW looking for:

• A solution to provide lone workers with the ability to raise duress and man-down alarms from remote locations
• Alarms to be sent to a central location and regular messages sent to the worker 
• An automatic alarm to be raised should be employee not respond to a message 
• The solution to be Intrinsically Safe (IS) and certified to Australian Standards
• The ability to control the security gates remotely during any emergency situation 

By Integrating Ascom’s specialised 9d23 Intrinsically Safe Protector handsets and DURAsuite alarm management application with the existing PLC system (Programmable Logic Controller), Integrated Wireless delivered a solution that enabled BOC’s lone workers to be “supervised” from a central location while at remote facilities.

The existing PLC system was configured so that when a lone worker arrived at a remote facility the PLC would instruct the DURAsuite alarm management system to automatically generate messages at pre-defined time intervals and send them to the lone workers phone. If the lone worker fails to respond to a message the DURAsuite alarm management system notifies the PLC system of this and an alarm is instantaneously transmitted to a central monitoring station which then initiates a process to check on the status of the lone worker. Similarly if a “duress” or “man-down” alarm is raised from the phone by the lone worker, the central monitoring station is informed via the PLC system. 

  

 In addition the lone worker can control the opening and closing of the access gates from their 9d23 Protector phone from anywhere on the facility. As the phones are connected to the on-site telephone system (PBX), the lone workers have full telephone communications capability while on site. The Ascom 9d23 Intrinsically Safe Protector handset is compliant with the global IECEx standard for Intrinsic Safety, which is in turn compliant with the Australian standards.

"Integrated Wireless (IW) have been long-time suppliers of our man-down alarm solutions. They have continually met business requirements and are prevalent in more than 20 BOC sites Australia-wide. IW's solutions provide our employees with the confidence to complete tasks successfully while reducing business costs."

- Don Anson, Superintendent, BOC Cryocentre Facility

For more information regarding our lone-worker alarm solutions, click here!

Correctional Services Healthcare Summit

According to the American Correctional Officer Intelligence Network, correctional officers (CO's) in the US have the second highest mortality rate of any occupation. 33% of violence in prisons is directed towards CO's resulting in high stress and anxiety levels.

The recent appearance of Integrated Wireless (IW) at the 3^rd Annual Correctional Services Healthcare Summit in Melbourne demonstrated the company's commitment to reducing the figures mentioned above.

The main theme revolved around primary healthcare in correctional facilities with impressive speakers from across the nation and abroad. Particularly interesting were presentations from SA Prison Health Service and GEO Care with supporting case studies.

Through various discussions over the two-day event, a lack of duress functionality in many facilities across Australia became apparent.

Integrated Wireless specialise in duress alarm management in a bid to decrease avoidable injury and death in corrective environments. IW's solutions are deployed in some of the nation's busiest facilities throughout the APAC region with 24x7 support should the need arise.

To read more about Integrated Wireless and the solutions provided, click here!

Woman Attempts to Steal Newborn Baby

According to a report by International Social Services, Australia has the highest per capita rate of international infant abductions in the world. Add to that those newborn babies switched at birth and the numbers begin to stack up.

Grisel Ramirez, 48, recently impersonated a nurse in a Californian hospital in an attempt to abduct a newborn baby. Ramirez, dressed in medical scrubs, entered the mother's room and told her to take a shower while she watched the baby. The mother complied and seconds later Ramirez left the room with the baby in a tote bag.

Luckily, the baby was wearing a Secure Care infant protection tag, alerting staff when it passed the doorway. Ramirez was immediately detained and is being held without bail.

Integrated Wireless are the Australian distributors of Secure Care products and have deployments in some of Australia's busiest hospitals. The Infant Protection System (IPS) prevents both theft and mistaken identity of newborn babies using WiFi baby tags attached to the ankle. This tag triggers an alarm when tampered with or when crossing a virtual WiFi boundary.

For pricing and information on infant protection solutions, click here!

New South Wales Nurses Association

The appearance of Integrated Wireless (IW) at the recent 67^th Annual New South Wales Nurses Association (NSWNA) conference cemented the company's commitment to protecting hospital staff in often unstable environments. As the sole duress provider present, IW's dominance in this niche market was evident.

With the theme 'Taking the lead: Organising for safe patient care', this conference focused on staffing and patient care issues now and in the future. Our IW representatives were particularly impressed by Dr Di Twigg from Edith Cowan University who had some very interesting points around the need for change to ensure quality patient care. International perspectives from both Tonga and Ireland were addressed with fascinating comparisons to Australian nursing.

Luckily, many of the 'safe patient care' issues faced above can be solved with a complete emergency duress solution. 

 

This event gave IW the opportunity to speak with many existing clients to gain a greater understanding of their needs. Although VoWiFi and infant protection systems were discussed, the real interest revolved around leveraging IW duress solutions with an existing IP-PBX and integrating with nurse-call systems and fire panels.

Thank you to everyone who stopped to talk and we hope you enjoy one of many IW mugs and drink bottles given away!

For information on duress solutions and how they may assist your facility, click here!