Kara Stamets, Content Marketing Specialist, Alertus Technologies

Outpatient treatment centers, psychiatric hospitals, and residential mental health facilities face unique emergency incidents that require swift attention from staff and first responders. Emergency managers must provide peace of mind to employees, patients, and visitors that they’ll receive timely alerts and assistance, no matter where they are located around the facility. 

Reliance on a PA system or email notification alone will only sometimes meet the unique needs of your facility. To improve emergency response, behavioral health organizations should continually assess their mass notification system (MNS) effectiveness to verify they are maximizing their system’s capabilities and reaching all intended audiences. 

Four elements of an MNS your mental health facility should strive for are:

1. System Unification: Centralize your mass notification system under a single platform for better organization, message consistency, and ease of use. Alertus’ net-centric alerting system incorporates web-based management and alert activation.

2. One-touch Activation: One-touch activation methods simplify and expedite your alerting process, allowing you to activate your MNS faster during a behavioral health crisis. Nurses located at desks and kiosks can press the Alertus Desktop Activator to activate and distribute alerts to specific devices or across the entire facility. The Rapid Response Console is another device that streamlines activation with multiple users.

3. Seamless Integration: Incorporate new, state-of-the-art mass notification products with your existing emergency communication investments, such as a fire alarm control panel, VoIP phone notification, access control, and desktop alerting.

4. Incident Response: Calling for help shouldn’t be complicated. With a quick press of a button, your staff can request help with the WiFi Panic Button. This effective incident response tool integrates seamlessly with the Alertus suite of mass notification products and many third-party solutions.

By customizing your system with the latest technology to reflect your facility's needs, you can better protect your residents, visitors, patients, and staff members when critical incidents occur in Behavioral/Mental Health settings. 

Resources 

Case Study: Hennepin County Medical Center (HCMC) 

HCMC is an integrated system that offers primary and specialty care, and notably, a large psychiatric program. Being spread across five city blocks in downtown Minneapolis makes emergency communication a crucial element in HCMC’s day-to-day operations. Read More

Video: The Alertus WiFi Panic Button 

Hospital staff faces numerous challenges every day. When a patient (or visitor) becomes violent, nurses and staff can quickly request help and backup by simply pressing a button. Watch Here