Lone Working In Healthcare

Healthcare is a profession built on empathy, with the NHS employing 1.2 million full-time workers in England alone. Lone working can be defined as any situation in which an employee works without close supervision: even in a hospital or care home with large numbers of staff, many people work alone and are exposed to the additional risk that lone working brings.

Safepoint is designed with people in mind. We want all workers - especially those administering care and vital life-giving services - to feel safe. With our lone working solution, we can help your employees do their best work safely and effectively.

Risks

Healthcare professionals take care of us at our most vulnerable, but they too are made vulnerable by the work they perform. With a push towards mobile working and reductions to staffing, lone workers in healthcare are more stretched and exposed to risk than ever.

Risks can include: 

• Physical and verbal aggression from patients and service users; NHS protect found the number of lone workers sustaining injury from physical assault was 9% higher than non-lone workers

• Increased risk of incident; lack of immediate support from colleagues, particularly during home visits

• Accident and injury; in addition to assault, lone working healthcare professionals may be more prone to slips, trips and falls while servicing patients or collecting equipment alone

Responsibilities

The duty of care you have as a healthcare provider extends not only to your service users but your lone working staff, many of whom will be alone for some or all of their shifts. 

Lone workers in the healthcare sector are at high risk of violence and physical assault from service users. As a healthcare provider, you are legally required to safeguard against risk, reduce the potential for incidents and have a clear process in place for when incidents do occur. Getting this wrong can be catastrophic for both patients and your lone workers: it’s your responsibility to take every step to get this right.

With the additional media scrutiny given to the healthcare sector and the integral nature of the work, safeguarding your lone workers, service users and organisation against potential incidents has never been more important.

Solutions

Healthcare is one of the most vital sectors in which lone workers operate. Take a close look at working practices and conduct rigorous and regular risk assessments to understand the threats healthcare employees face to both their physical and mental health. Taking care of lone workers means a better standard of care for your patients. 

Leverage lone worker insight and incident data to improve your working practices; risk can’t be completely eliminated, but it can be learned from. Keep your healthcare professionals informed. 

Ensure your staff are protected from violence by using a lone worker solution to make certain they can get help when they need it: whether that’s on-site or in a patient’s home. 

How does Safepoint protect lone workers?

Safepoint provides award-winning lone working solutions for workers in healthcare along many other industries across the UK and abroad.

When healthcare workers are equipped with Safepoint’s apps and wearable panic alarms, they can set up timed, GPS-tracked ‘tasks’ (such as ‘Visiting Mr Peters - 1 hour’).

If the worker runs into trouble, they can tap a button on their phone or wearable panic alarm and an alert will be sent out (along with their live location).

But what if a worker is incapacitated (for instance, if they are attacked)? With Safepoint, an alert will automatically be sent out if a user takes a fall (sometimes called a man-down feature) or if they are unresponsive. 

With Safepoint, housing organisations can supervise their whole team through the Safepoint Portal – where they can see alerts, live locations, status updates, team analytics and more.

What’s more, with Safepoint’s 24/7 GuardianPlus service, your team’s safety can be monitored day and night by an accredited team of expert responders. These emergency response professionals, working out of a dedicated Alarm Receiving Centre, will handle any emergency –from first response, to escalation management, to liaising with the emergency services.