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Due to the nature of their work in remote areas, these inspectors face unique occupational hazards. Limited cellular connectivity can lead to communication challenges and hinder accurate location tracking during emergencies. Isolation only compounds the risks, making safety a critical concern for these workers.
Government bodies are taking steps to protect home healthcare workers. However, are the measures enough to protect these people from the serious safety challenges that they are facing every day? And are these measures being implemented fast enough with violence against healthcare workers increasing in both frequency and severity.
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 individuals who are chronically ill or disabled, requiring ongoing assistance.
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.
Individuals involved in purchasing and researching SafetyLine come from a variety of roles within an organization. This includes high-level executives such as CEOs and presidents, as well as administrative assistants and the lone workers who will use the technology. Each role brings a unique perspective and set of requirements when evaluating lone worker safety solutions tailored to their team's specific needs and challenges.
In October 2023, a home healthcare nurse was murdered visiting a halfway house. As part of her job, she was providing medications to a client with a record of sexual assault – alone. She was one of nearly 1.5 million home healthcare workers in the United States who enter clients’ homes to provide essential care and services for people with disabilities or chronic conditions. According to the OSHA, home healthcare workers can include ‘home health aides, personal/home care aides, companions, nursing assistants or home health nurses’ and “are employed in patients' homes and in community-based services such as group homes.”
At SafetyLine, we are dedicated to continuous improvement and innovation to ensure the safety and well-being of lone workers. We are thrilled to announce a new enhancement that will significantly improve our communication capabilities, user experience, and emergency response efficiency. Here’s a detailed look at our latest app update for July.
A simple check-in from a worker can significantly enhance safety. This single step allows lone workers to confirm their well-being with their employer, alleviating personal safety concerns while working in isolation. Beyond the action itself, safety check-in messages serve as crucial communication channels for occupational safety monitoring and management.
There are three key reasons why a check-in message should include more than just the lone worker's GPS coordinates, which, while essential, are only one part of the larger picture:
These manual check-ins are problematic because they are at risk of human error, and employees will sometimes need to remember to check-in. Likewise, an employer will only notice if a lone worker checks in to confirm they are okay. This risk is exceptionally high in larger organizations where managers may need to keep track of teams larger than 30+ people – it can be challenging and prone to mistakes using traditional methods such as spreadsheets to keep track.
