Charitable healthcare organisation St John New Zealand have launched the StaySafe smartphone app and surrounding cloud based monitoring service to protect their lone workers. The app will be used to monitor their medical alarm representatives who install, test and service emergency medical alarms for 40,000 vulnerable or elderly customers across New Zealand.
As well as providing an accurate GPS location for employees, the app also features a range of alerts which the representatives can discreetly activate if they find themselves at risk.
Employee location and alert activity within the StaySafe Hub will be monitored by the same dedicated teams who control the St John medical alarm monitoring system.
St John felt that they needed to take steps to ensure that their lone workers were better protected whilst visiting and travelling between customers.
After a thorough review of the market and then a successful five week trial St John decided to roll out StaySafe to all their representatives.
The StaySafe app, which works on smartphones and tablets, tracks employee location via GPS and alerts their manager if they do not check-in within a specified time. St John then keep track of employees’ whereabouts using the StaySafe online Hub which accurately locates workers on a map and provides real-time updates on their location. If an employee activates the app’s panic button or fails to check in, alerts are automatically triggered on screen and via text and email, allowing St John to take immediate action.
The StaySafe Hub also integrates with St John’s existing technology as it is monitored on adjacent screens by the same employees who monitor the St John medical alarm system.
Nick Coley, Head of Telecare at St John National Headquarters New Zealand explains why they chose StaySafe; “The benefits of implementing StaySafe for our business far outweigh any associated costs. The StaySafe team offered lots of support to get up and running and let us take the sales and set up process at our own pace. The app and Hub itself are intuitive and easy to use with a great range of functions and alerts. Our employees feel that we have taken some really positive steps to protect them and I would certainly recommend StaySafe to others in our position”.
Bob Barrington Business Development Australia New Zealand for StaySafe adds “when we first spoke with St John they were in the process of finalising their lone worker policy, and had identified lone working as one of their organization’s key risks. We are delighted to have helped St John mitigate this risk and better meet their duty of care to their lone workers”.