Proactive Safety for Home Healthcare Workers
Table of Contents
What is SafetyLine?
Why SafetyLine is a great fit for home healthcare workers
Hazards faced by home healthcare workers
How SafetyLine enhances safety in the home healthcare industry
Home Care and Hospice Conference and Expo
We must prioritize the safety of workers who provide essential, hands-on care, along with emotional and physical support, in patients' homes. This includes hospice and home care professionals who care for people with chronic illnesses and disabilities, requiring ongoing care themselves.
These workers are vital to a healthy society, yet they face increasing challenges in their roles. To address these issues, the National Association for Home Care and Hospice (NAHC) is hosting the 2024 Home Care and Hospice Conference and Expo from October 15 to 17 in Tampa Bay, Florida, an area still recovering from the previous hurricanes.
Given the critical importance of home care and hospice workers, who face various occupational risks, SafetyLine Lone Worker will be attending the conference to showcase its solutions for proactive safety, mitigating hazards, and workplace violence.
What is SafetyLine?
SafetyLine Lone Worker is a safety solution designed to protect people who work alone. It offers an easy-to-use check-in system that sends automatic alerts in emergencies and tracks location in real time. It works with a range of devices like mobile phones and satellite communicators. For over 25 years, SafetyLine has been safeguarding workers, including home care providers, delivering essential care in patients' homes.
Why SafetyLine is a great fit for home healthcare workers
SafetyLine is a perfect match for the demands of home healthcare, where schedules are busy and mobility is key. Its easy-to-use, non-intrusive app offers scheduled check-ins to ensure workers' safety without disrupting patient care. Since it works on devices healthcare workers already carry, like smartphones, it’s convenient and effective. Even in areas with limited service or unpredictable, high-risk situations, SafetyLine provides real-time emergency support, offering peace of mind on the go.
Hazards faced by home healthcare workers
When working in high-risk patient homes and environments, home healthcare workers can face several serious occupational hazards that are elevated when these people are performing their jobs alone who can be classified as lone workers.
Unfamiliar environments: For most work environments, they can be assessed for hazards beforehand so the proper safety measures can be taken before anyone is hurt. But with a new patient’s home, it is also a new, unassessed work environment with unaddressed hazards that could potentially harm the home healthcare worker.
Violence and harassment: An unfortunate reality of the job is the risk of violence, assault or harassment from clients or family members. While many of these people are grateful for the care they receive, there is this risk – especially when working alone. Violence prevention programs are one of the first steps in addressing this workplace hazard.
Medical emergencies: Medical emergencies are a threat to any job; however, they are significantly more of a danger when someone else is reliant upon that job for daily care and support. When working alone, there is not a coworker available to monitor any concerning physical symptoms or provide help.
Accessing emergency help: When working alone in a patient’s home, these workers sometimes experience the major challenge and hazard of accessing help in an accident or emergency. Due to the remote, mobile, hands-on nature of the job, access to essential communication may be difficult or limited, requiring more than simply a panic button device.
How SafetyLine enhances safety in the home healthcare industry
To effectively protect these people alone in client homes and care homes, employers must implement the use of safety technologies and lone worker safety solutions that allow them to monitor them remotely and stay connected. Thanks to continual advances in technology as well as stronger, farther-reaching communications networks, there are several options available to protect lone home healthcare workers for different occupational needs. There are also many more options available to help protect people in all industries, not only healthcare.
To protect people alone in client homes and care homes, employers need to provide safety technologies and lone worker safety solutions which allow them to monitor these workers remotely and stay connected. With advances in technology and communications networks, SafetyLine maintains communication and connection with home healthcare workers so that they can request help whenever needed. Its automated, real-time monitoring system prevents delays in providing emergency help when home healthcare workers are injured or face threats.
SafetyLine’s proven solution streamlines emergency escalation, ensuring rapid assistance and response, including advanced GPS tracking and location awareness. Thousands of workers have used SafetyLine for lone worker safety including home healthcare workers and community care workers – you can read some of their testimonials here.
Home Care and Hospice Conference and Expo
If you are attending the NAHC Home Care and Hospice Conference and Expo, please come by the SafetyLine booth to say hello and for a live demonstration of our proactive safety solution for home health care workers. If not, we are always available to talk about worker safety and answer any questions.
For more information on working safety alone and SafetyLine, please visit our How We Work page or contact us with any further questions.
Hurricanes Milton and Helene
Our thoughts and prayers are with the residents of Tampa and all of Florida who were affected by this storm. If you would like to help those who need assistance due to Hurricanes Milton and Helene, please consider donating to the American Red Cross.