Beaumont Health System, a three-hospital provider near Detroit, uses communication badges with real-time location systems (RTLS) and location analytics to beef up its employee workplace safety program, according to an article on the Search Health IT website.

Clinicians carrying badges have one button to summon coworkers for less urgent assistance such as when a patient is getting loud or boisterous, the article said. A second button can call security if the situation escalates. When staff members press a button on their badge, RTLS determines the person's location and notifies call recipients where help is needed.

This badge implementation evolved from an idea born in Beaumont's nursing safety program. Not all nurses carry a badge; each patient is assessed as they come in. When one is flagged as potentially violent in the EHR the care team of nurses, technicians, the secretary and charge nurse are each given a badge.

Each patient tagged as risk of becoming violent triggers about five badges in use at a time, according to the article. Across the more than 1,100 beds at three Beaumont hospitals, about 20 patients require care teams to wear the badges at any given time.

Read the article.