Wearable panic buttons are an effective workplace safety solution that enables staff to request help with only the press of a button. To ensure they are always within reach, these buttons are worn on a lanyard around the neck or secured via a badge clip. While hospitals were the first to adopt wearable panic buttons as part of their workplace violence safety plans, they are by no means limited to the healthcare setting. Wearable panic buttons are the perfect addition to a school alert system, hospitality business, government offices, and more. Their secret: simplicity.
Let’s discuss how user-friendly wearable panic buttons can bolster your hospital safety plans and school alert systems.
CENTEGIX: A Pioneer in Safety Through Simplicity
CrisisAlert™ is CENTEGIX’s wearable panic button solution. CrisisAlert was initially created to reduce response times when unthinkable emergencies like the Parkland school shooting happen. When CENTEGIX was designing the CrisisAlert mobile panic button, it prioritized insights from those who had been directly impacted by school emergencies and relied on feedback from representatives of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas Public Safety Commission.
As the design of the wearable panic button was being developed, we moved away from the prototype with multiple buttons in favor of the simplicity of a single button on the badge because humans react to crisis situations in different ways. Under intense stress, we:
- Overlook critical details by fixating on the threat or immediate surroundings
- Experience delayed reaction times and slower information processing
- Make decisions from a heightened emotional state rather than from logical reasoning
- Fall back on ineffective or previously unsuccessful strategies out of confusion or panic
According to the CDC, to help someone facing a crisis, the message must be simple, credible, and consistent. An effective message must:
- Be repeated
- Come from multiple credible sources
- Be specific to the emergency
- Offer a positive course of action for someone to execute
Speed is also very important when communicating in an emergency. CENTEGIX recognizes that a school alert system should convey timely, consistent messages to help facilitate cooperation and communication during a crisis.
CrisisAlert was initially created to accelerate critical incident response; it was purpose-built for both extreme and everyday situations in which school staff require assistance, such as asthma attacks and environmental threats.
Wearable Panic Buttons Have You Covered
No matter the organization, campus size, or workforce number, CENTEGIX CrisisAlert is there when you need it.
Full campus coverage. CENTEGIX’s private, managed network secures every square foot of your organization, so the CrisisAlert badge functions everywhere. No matter where you are from the inside or out, office or parking area, your alert instantly reaches responders. Staff can instantly initiate a campus-wide rapid response to emergencies. A campus-wide alert:
- Goes directly to first responders and local administrators, notifying them of who needs help and precisely where they are
- Activates full audio and visual communication campus-wide so everyone knows the campus is in lockdown or sheltering in place and to get to safety as soon as possible
- Notifies 911 dispatch with critical information for responders
Discreet. The CrisisAlert badge empowers users to quickly and discreetly summon assistance from other coworkers and administrators, who can offer assistance when and where it is needed.
Private managed network. No Wi-Fi or cell signal is needed to initiate an alert.
Schools and healthcare organizations are vital to communities. The nationwide increase in violence in healthcare and schools means safety technology needs to be multidisciplinary.
CENTEGIX CrisisAlert can span sectors. The success in education led CENTEGIX to think about how its school alert system could translate into hospitals, hotels, justice centers, and more. Luckily, it was adaptable to remedy workplace violence in hospitals and other healthcare organizations.
CENTEGIX CrisisAlert inSchools
The list of potential emergencies for which a wearable panic button may be useful is long, and novel events create novel safety concerns. For example, the American Psychological Association found that rates of violence and aggression against K-12 school personnel were high during the pandemic, despite most schools being remote during the survey. One-third of teachers surveyed reported they experienced at least one incident of verbal or threatening violence from students during the pandemic, including verbal threats, cyberbullying, intimidation, and sexual harassment.
Another common issue in schools is elopement. Student elopement, when a student leaves the school property without permission, usually occurs on the playground or when students are traveling from one point to another within the school or on the school grounds.
With CrisisAlert as part of your school alert system, every member of your school’s staff can request help in any type of emergency and be confident that help is on the way. Principal Sara Bravo of Mandarin High School in Florida has this to say about CrisisAlert:
“The CENTEGIX badges have been a game changer for us. There have been multiple situations, including seizures, a dislocated knee, an allergic reaction, a couple of classroom altercations, and a threatening individual, that have prompted staff to use the three-button press. Our staff response time is significantly shorter with this tool. Responders reach the incident location in 30 seconds or less, regardless of the location on campus. Thankfully we haven’t had a need to use the tool for a full school lockdown as of yet, but I’m sure it will happen, and when it does, we will be ready. The decision to move to CENTEGIX was, in my opinion, a great one.”
CENTEGIX CrisisAlert in Healthcare
Violence in healthcare is on the rise. In 2022, the US Attorney General’s office issued a statement that violence against hospital employees had significantly increased since the onset of the pandemic, with no sign of slowing down. Studies indicate that during the pandemic, 44% of nurses reported experiencing physical violence and 68% reported experiencing verbal abuse. A recent report by National Nurses United confirms this continued trend. In 2023, 81.6% of nurses reported experiencing at least one type of workplace violence.
Safety in hospitals and other facilities is imperative to successful patient care and community engagement. Healthcare facilities tend to impact their communities significantly, so safety is even more important for healthcare decision-makers. If patients and staff don’t feel safe at a hospital, where can they feel safe?
For healthcare leaders, an increased sense of safety leads to better patient health outcomes, which is the ultimate goal of every healthcare organization. According to the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Global Action on Patient Safety report, “Investing in patient safety positively impacts health outcomes, reduces costs related to patient harm, improves system efficiency, and helps in reassuring communities and restoring their trust in health care systems.”
CENTEGIX CrisisAlert empowers healthcare workers to alert an emergency with the simplicity of a single button, whether an act of patient aggression that needs quick assistance or a facility-wide emergency requiring a universal response. The wearable, silent alert system boasts full-campus, precise location data. It allows staff to discreetly de-escalate while administrators and safety personnel respond to the crisis anywhere on campus before the rest of the community is put in danger. Additionally, healthcare organizations are constantly altering their technology. CENTEGIX’s safety platform was purpose-built to integrate with existing technologies and investments to enhance how they supplement your safety plan, all on a privately managed network.
CENTEGIX CrisisAlert: A Simple Safety Solution
Every second matters.® The CENTEGIX Safety Platform™, featuring CrisisAlert, can make safety simple. CENTEGIX is a national leader in developing innovative safety solutions that help keep communities safe from potential threats and accelerate emergency response.
The CENTEGIX Safety Platform utilizes dynamic digital mapping, real-time visitor locating capabilities, an easy-to-use wearable emergency button, and reunification capabilities to plan for and respond faster to emergencies.
Click here to learn more about what we can do for your organization and to see a demo of the CENTEGIX Safety Platform.