While the primary use for a panic button is, of course, to initiate an alarm response during an emergency, some facilities have come up with some unconventional deployment uses. Here are six ways to use these systems at your facility that you might not have considered.
1. Create a ‘Pendant Bucket’ – Hospitals often have numerous temporary workers in the facility, and one hospital dispersed mobile duress panic pendants daily to the volunteers working the behavioral health unit where patients can be prone to outbursts.
2. Weather Alerts – For areas prone to thunderstorms or tornadoes the pendants can be set to alert when rough weather moves in, alerting staff to take cover.
3. Fire Emergencies – Although mobile panic alarms are by no means meant to detect fires or signal the fire department, the units can be tied in to a fire detection system to alert when the fire alarm system activates, giving staff an additional warning.
4. Environmental Alerts— Some mobile duress units, like those from Inovonics, have fixed transmitters that can measure temperature and humidity and ones that can support 1-10V current loop inputs for environmental monitoring as well. For example, a transmitter can be placed in a hospital freezer where pharmaceuticals are stored. It can be set to activate if the temperature rises above a certain level.
5. Food Service – In yet another unique deployment example, one hospital is using the devices to monitor its food service. In the application, a magnetic contact connects a hospital food cart to its charging station/heating element. When that magnetic contact is broken when the cart is moved away, a timer starts so hospital administrators can determine the viability of how long that food will stay warm before it is delivered. An alert is sent if the time away from the charging station is exceeded, meaning the food is likely to be too cold to be delivered.
6. Boiler Rooms – Using the temperature and humidity sensors, the duress systems have been deployed throughout one hospital to monitor the temperature and get a better thermal picture of the facility, and adjust the boiler control systems as needed.
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