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.
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complete list of products and services.
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