Staff safety given top priority in new Danish hospital

When the new psychiatric hospital in Slagelse, Denmark opens its doors next year, it will have a strong focus on employee safety. The hospital, with its nearly 200 beds, will be one of the country’s largest and most modern psychiatric hospitals. It will not only be a treatment facility for psychiatric patients, but it will also accommodate patients committed by the courts and criminals awaiting diagnosis. Therefore, the requirements for security and personal safety are especially stringent.

The hospital is using a staff security solution from Ascom, which has integrated positioning technology. “If a staff member feels unsafe or is attacked and activates his or her alarm, it will send the location information directly to colleagues’ handsets. This removes a major stress factor and ensures rapid intervention,” said Technical Manager Gorm Jensen of Region Zealand Psychiatry in Denmark.

Personnel security is also integrated with the fire alarm and in case of assistance calls related to heart attacks. If a fire occurs anywhere in the hospital, staff will be automatically alerted on their handsets.

“It’s of major importance that all personnel feel safe and secure at work. Our solutions offer easier communication between staff in critical or threatening situations. The solution will help response and security teams to more quickly structure and coordinate their actions and avoid potentially dangerous situations. Not only does this create a more efficient and safe workplace, it also reduces the overall operational costs,” said Dennis Andersson, vice president global sales at Ascom Wireless Solutions.

The Danish hospital has opted for a personnel security solution that runs in a closed network. “It is precisely in this environment that we do not want to experiment with new technologies. Among Ascom’s different technologies, we have opted for a solution that we know works under all electrical supply conditions. Employees must be able to trust that their alarms always get through, even under power outages, for example. For security reasons, we have also chosen dedicated, vandalism-proof handsets,” concluded Jensen.