N.S. health authority testing device to enhance communications, workplace security

Officials with Nova Scotia Health have launched a pilot program with new technology they hope will improve the workflow for clinicians while also making people feel safer at work.

The health authority recently signed a deal worth about $531,000 with Vocera, a division of U.S.-based medical technology giant Stryker, for 158 hands-free wearable badges, along with the ability to grant an additional 142 users concurrent access to the software through an app on their smartphone or desktop computer.

Dr. Matt Clarke, an emergency room doctor and the health authority's associate chief medical information officer, said the idea was being explored even before an incident earlier this year when a patient at the Halifax Infirmary became violent and attacked three health-care workers, stabbing two of them.

But Clarke said that incident prompted officials to include the Infirmary's emergency department in the list of pilot sites, along with another part of the Infirmary, Valley Regional Hospital in Kentville and the Colchester East Hants Health Centre in Truro.

The device provides people with a secure communications tool and a "significant security feature" that activates an alert with the push of a button if a health-care worker finds themself in an unsafe situation.

"It's able to immediately send an alert to everybody wearing a badge, including our security response team, that would be able to immediately hear where the person is located as well as audio from the room to be able to respond to the event and have a sense of what's going on in the room before they get there," said Clarke.

It's the latest effort to provide added security for hospital workers following the decisions to install metal detectors at some sites and require visitors to the Infirmary emergency department to obtain security passes.

"There's no one solution that will address all security events or all security situations," said Clarke. "We need to think about a lot of different things and [Vocera] is one of them."

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Along with the security features, Clarke said the devices also allow staff to communicate with each other and find each other no matter where they're located in the hospital. Members of a rapid response team assigned to a critically ill patient could be notified simultaneously in the event of a development, or a doctor or nurse could get a question about a patient to a colleague who might not be nearby.

The contract with Vocera was awarded without going to public tender. Clarke said health authority officials used an alternative procurement process to select the company in part because it's a "significant player" in the market and because the device could be integrated with other technology that already exists in the Nova Scotia health-care system.

Clarke said the pilot program and feedback from front-line staff, including doctors, nurses, paramedics, security and clerical staff, would provide insight into whether to expand the use of the devices and, if so, how to broaden the program.