Healthcare
LifePROTEKT appreciates the enormous tasks faced by those in the health care industry in relation to caring to those patients with Alzheimer’s, Autism or other similar conditions. One of the greatest issues faced today is safety. Many facilities such as assisted living residences, hospitals, home health companies and nursing homes can now use location based personal trackers to help in maintaining the well being of their clients.
LifeProtekt is proud of the role it plays in providing a venue to discuss issues pertinent to these individuals and ways to help safeguard those at risk clients. The risk of wandering is one of the greatest liabilities in caring for those who have Alzheimer’s, autism and other such disabilities. The insurance costs alone for the liability that each institution faces has skyrocketed based on exponentially new cases diagnosed every year.
In the past, most hospital facilities and assisted living environments have used ‘bed checks’- a sensor that alarms when a patient leaves their bed, which of course is of some value and was the only sentinel available. One of the critical issues that the health care industry faces is the ability to track clients when they go missing. The way the system operates today is that the bed check will send out an alarm to the central monitoring stations but it is too late since the patient has already left their bed. The underlying situation is there is no way to track the patient once they have left the designated area? With location based personal trackers, caregivers will be more adept in locating these individuals.
Just as facilities currently use telemetry to monitor cardiac events of multiple patients via computer they can now also monitor multiple at risk patients’ locations using personal tracking devices. This ability reduces the need for one to one nursing care in these incidents as nurses are frequently paid to sit and watch a confused patient just to make sure they will not wander off.
The location based trackers are not just for those with Alzheimer’s, dementia, or autism. As many people in the patient population are also at risk for becoming confused and could potentially wander, such as those with hypoxia or under the influence of certain medications. Even a urinary tract infection can cause confusion in an elderly person. LifePROTEKT stands ready to assist and support the health care sector.
By using this technology, healthcare facilities will be able to better utilize staff, decrease liability and most importantly, help preserve the safety of its clients. Today both private and public facilities can use the same technology being utilized by National Security, Homeland Security and even your own local law enforcement agencies. One of the greatest benefits to utilizing location based service devices for the healthcare industry is providing an added degree of personal security which seems to become more relevant each day as the populations of the disabled patients increase. Both accidental and unlawful situations arise when people with disabilities are lost or wander. These are all many obstacles that health care officials are faced with on a daily basis and LifePROTEKT provides solutions
As a Registered Nurse I work with people who are afflicted with one sort of disability or another such as Autism and Alzhimers, so I know how frustrating it can be in communicating with them so I can imagine how horrifying it can be when one of these individuals happens to wander from their loved ones for one reason or another. It reminds me of a case close to home. My son’s friend has a son who is autistic and one day while he was visiting his grandparents here where I live he wandered off. My community is a country setting, well everyone became frantic. The police were called and they were ready to start an air search when my son found him on a logging road pushing his favorite toy train. My heart goes out to the families with disabilities and I want to commend the creators of this web site for educating the public in all aspects on individuals with disabilities. Keep up the great work.
As an LPN I have come across many patients with Autism, Alzheimers, and many other special needs who would benefit greatly from this device. This technology would not only ensure the safety of these people but give their families a sense of security and ease some of the stressors involved in caring for their loved ones. This is a brilliant find and the world needs to know about it.