Uniting Communities Choose Integrated Wireless

Integrated Wireless (IW) have been working with Uniting Communities at it's Aldersgate facility in order to increase staff protection and work flows. Uniting Communities came to IW with the following requirements:

• To provide a comprehensive campus-wide duress and cordless phone system with the ability to raise multiple types of alarms (including man-down)

• A handset which will remain consistent across the whole fleet and offers increased durability and robustness

• The system should be capable of providing accurate location throughout the facility

• The system must have the ability to integrate with the existing nurse call, fire panel and gate control systems whereby notifications are immediately broadcast out to appropriate staff members

• The system must provide a comprehensive audit trail of all communications for post incident analysis and reporting

• Measures must be taken to ensure the staff understand and have complete confidence in the duress system and its capabilities

Ascom d81 handset

By deploying 52 of IW's robust d81 duress handsets alongside the latest Ascom basestations to improve coverage and voice quality, IW met the main requirements mentioned above. The Ascom d81 handsets provide staff with an intuitive, easy-to-use device that provides simple messaging, calling and duress solutions. Locational duress alarms can be raised through one of two ways:

-  Push-button duress

-  Man-down alarm (automatic alarm raised when handset tilts over a pre-defined angle)

 Upon a duress alarm being raised at Aldersgate, a message is automatically broadcast out to staff detailing the identity of the unit and its location, while also letting them know which type of alarm was raised. Along with this, staff have the ability to visually identify the location of a duress event on a site map via the alarm management module known as DURAalarm. This allows all LAN based Java enabled computers to view in real time, via text or graphical information, the location of all alarms from the wireless duress handsets.

The management team at Aldersgate wanted their staff to have complete confidence in and understanding of the duress functionality implemented by IW. In order to achieve this, IW introduced DURAtest, a live testing application that allows staff to test their handset's duress functionality at the beginning of every shift. This process increases their familiarity with the duress operation and gives them certainty that an immediate response will be actioned should a problem arise.

Uniting Care- Aldersgate Facility

In addition, IW's solution integrates through to the existing nursecall, fire panel and access control systems at the Aldersgate facility. This allows all nursecall notifications sent within the system to be broadcast out to the appropriate staff member using differentiating tones and following an escalation process should the message not be accepted. Integration through to the fire panel allows mass broadcast out to appropriate staff for rapid response, whilst integrating with access control systems allow defined staff to open doors for visitors.

Finally, IW provided ENSURElog, a software module that permanently stores all communications (alarms, messages, response recordings and phone activity) sent within the system onto a central logging database. All entries are date/time stamped and can be easily accessed by authorised personnel for reporting and auditing purposes, giving management a very powerful OH&S tool to improve response coordination, reduce litigation and potentially highlight a need for staff training.
 

“When Uniting Communities went out to market for a new communication and duress solution, we were not expecting to find a vendor who could meet all of our essential and desired requirements. Integrated Wireless have not only provided our Aldersgate facility with such a solution, they have offered superior support and training after the completion of the project.” 

- Carol McArthur, Group Manager Residential Care Services, Uniting Communities

For more information regarding this case and other IW solutions, click here!