Epworth HealthCare is Victoria’s largest not-for-profit private hospital group, renowned for excellence in diagnosis, treatment, care and rehabilitation. Epworth is an innovator in Australia’s health system, embracing the latest in evidence-based medicine to pioneer treatments and services for their patients. They consist of more than 10,000 doctors, nurses, allied health clinicians, support staff, and volunteers.
Many of Epworth’s healthcare professionals work alone in community settings and can be faced with antisocial and aggressive behaviour from patients or members of the public. With employee safety as their top priority, Epworth’s Community Rehabilitation Manager, Jeremy Buckmaster, searched for a lone worker safety solution that would ensure his employees were safe, accounted for, and felt supported while working in the community.
Since deploying SHEQSY’s smartphone app across all lone workers’ devices, employees have reported feeling increased levels of safety and security. Meanwhile, SHEQSY has also made managing, monitoring, and reporting on lone worker activities easier and more efficient for Jeremy.
Epworth’s urgent need for a lone worker safety solution
Aware of the serious and potentially life-threatening hazards and risks experienced by their lone-working healthcare employees, Epworth needed a safety solution that allowed employees to quickly and discreetly activate a duress alarm to receive emergency assistance from SHEQSY’s 24/7 security monitoring centre.
Epworth’s community rehabilitation lone workers serve patients with acquired brain injuries (ABI). It is not uncommon for these patients to show anger and aggression towards healthcare professionals.
As their manager, Jeremy found it challenging to gain visibility and ensure the safety of numerous community employees simultaneously. He also lacked peace of mind, not knowing whether lone workers returned safely from their client visits, without contacting them all individually both during and outside office hours.
With lone worker safety as one of Epworth’s top priorities, Jeremy began researching various lone worker safety solutions.
Finding the right solution to serve Epworth’s lone workers
Prior to discovering SHEQSY, Epworth researched and trialed a range of solutions, including those that required employees to carry separate devices.
Jeremy discovered a number of issues with other lone worker safety solutions, including:
- Employees did not want to carry additional devices
- Employees lost and damaged the devices, which resulted in additional costs
- Employees forgot to recharge the devices, take them to appointments, or return them to the hospital
Still searching for an easy and innovative solution, Epworth looked to trial SHEQSY’s cloud-based smartphone app across their community-based employees. Deploying SHEQSY is simple and cost-effective, as employees can easily download the app onto their existing devices and, as a result, there are no upfront hardware or setup costs. Jeremy also valued SHEQSY’s quick panic button feature, which allows employees to swiftly and easily activate their duress without opening the SHEQSY app.
“SHEQSY not only allows my employees to utilise an existing device, but it also provides a quick panic option, avoiding the hassle of having to unlock a phone in an emergency.” – Jeremy Buckmaster, Community Rehabilitation Manager, Epworth HealthCare
After reviewing a wide range of safety options for Epworth’s employees, Jeremy concluded that SHEQSY was, “by far the best available, in terms of functionality and price.”
Epworth’s workplace safety and efficiency increases after deploying SHEQSY
Since implementing SHEQSY, Epworth’s management team and lone workers feel safer, have peace of mind, and find ease in completing their day-to-day activities.
Deploying the app across their mobile workforce was a smooth and seamless process, and now Epworth can visualise their employees with activity countdown timers on the SHEQSY platform.
They also know that when an employee overstays an activity, misses a check-in, or activates their duress alarm, real-time alerts are sent to SHEQSY’s 24/7 security monitoring centre so that the agreed escalation process is immediately enacted, ensuring the employee’s safety and wellbeing.
“Since using SHEQSY, employees report that they feel much more secure knowing that they have SHEQSY monitoring their sessions. As a manager, I find it much easier to track the productivity and safety of my employees when working in the community.” – Jeremy Buckmaster, Community Rehabilitation Manager, Epworth HealthCare
