Lone Worker Safety Devices
KATANA Safety’s lone worker safety devices provide discreet help with real-time duress technology and panic button.
Show your Home Care Professionals their well-being is your top priority
Boost morale, reduce risk, and provide peace of mind to everyone
Home Care Safety Risks
Solving This Problem is Personal to Us
The job functions of Home Care Professionals involve inherent risk, like working alone in unsafe conditions and high risk environments, dangerous neighborhoods, aggressive patients, off ours in-home visits can be a major source of stress. That’s why KATANA Safety Pro has designed a device that, with the mere flick of a finger, sets in motion a chain of events that prevents a bad situation from getting worse. And because we’ve designed it to travel anywhere, your team will be continually reminded, every time they pick up their phone, that you have their back, both on and off the clock.
Work alone in potentially high-risk environments
- Placed in the personal setting of a person’s home
- Interact with people who may become aggressive
- Commute long distances from worksite to homes
- Travel in and out of unfamiliar neighborhoods
- Scheduled for evening and night in-home visits
- Occupational stress and overexertion can result in accidents
Exposed to serious or life-threatening hazards
- Illegal drugs, guns, and other weapons
- Verbal abuse and other forms of violence
- Blood-borne pathogens, communicable disease, needlesticks
- Unsanitary conditions and temperature extremes
- Lack of water, unclean or hostile animals, and animal waste
Real Accounts from Caregivers
I did home health for many years. I had guns pulled on me, I delivered care while spouses watched me with shotguns and once I had to show my pregnant belly to a paranoid schizophrenic who thought I had a bomb in my sweater. Nurses don’t get enough credit for what they put up with to provide care and advocate for their patients.
Real Accounts from Caregivers
I have been a hospice nurse for 3 years and have already been in 3 situations that have made me fear for my life.
Real Accounts from Caregivers
I did it 16 for years and never had any fear. You couldn’t pay me enough to do it now with all this craziness that’s going on. People have the attitude that they can just take a life no big deal.
Real Accounts from Caregivers
I had a pt threaten to kill me once over a medication box. He went towards the bedroom and I ran jumped in my car and drove away. Our company dropped him and notified his dr.
Real Accounts from Caregivers
I once found myself alone in a home with a new intake patient, who informed me he’d recently been paroled after serving 40+ years of a 99-year sentence. I could think of only a few reasons for such a sentence, none of them good. That was the day I started texting my family each arrival and departure time plus the address. Another rural home had a human-sized plywood cutout nailed to a tree by the long driveway, riddled with bullet holes to deter thieves. Glad he knew my expected arrival time.
Could you have done more?
In the United States, home care workers are most susceptible to verbal abuse and aggression, threats, and sexual harassment.
Costly Impact of Caregiver Turnover
65%
Average Employee
Turnover
$44,400
Average
Turnover Cost
per employee
*According to 2021 study by a NSI Nursing Solutions
Statistics
%
80% of Emergency Medical Services personnel have been attacked by patients.
%
Among nursing homes with dementia units, 59% of nursing aides reported being assaulted by patients weekly and 16% daily.
%
The annual incidence of physical assault in a psychiatric setting is 70%.
%
OSHA States that 48% more assaults occur in the healthcare and social services industries than any other.
%
15% of social workers have been physically assaulted by clients in 2019 with 30% experiencing this at some point in their career.
OSHA’s General Duty Clause, Section 5(a)(1), requires employers to provide their workers with a workplace free from recognized hazards that are causing or likely to cause death or serious physical harm. Between 2011 and 2013, workplace assaults ranged from 23,540 and 25,630 annually, with 70 to 74% occurring in healthcare and social service settings.
KATANA Safety Solution
KATANA SAFETY offers a comprehensive way to address the duty of care obligations and validate a Healthcare organization’s commitment to the safety and well-being of its people. With our easy-to-use solution, you can transform from a company with thousands of unique risks to a proactive, pre-emptive and empathetic mitigator of risk. Not addressing the risks to these employees could be a ticking time-bomb for the industry-based workplace safety and OSHA compliance.
My company truly cares about me. They have my back.”The mandate goes beyond compliance.
Anyone. Anytime. Anywhere.
Going where no other option can go
Weapons can't go everywhere.
You must remember to carry and charge wearables
To use an app, you must unlock your phone
Take care of employees first.
Everything else follows.
Safe Employees Stay
When you give your home care team members a quick trigger on for their smartphone they breathe a little easier and with less stress, they perform better. They will know you care about them and willing to make proactive investments in their well-being.
Best Practices
A Solution That Works
There have been other attempts to close this gap, but they fall short. Weapons aren’t viable for a number of reasons – least of all licensure. An extra device that would provide all these benefits can easily be forgotten because it’s not your smartphone. And those apps – well, someone with malicious intent is not going to give you a moment to unlock your phone to launch an app before they strike.
Real Accounts from Caregivers
I have been physically assaulted, verbally abused, knives and ice picks pulled on me as well as a shotgun once in the hospital WE HAVE TO CHANGE THIS!!!
Real Accounts from Caregivers
I tried home health once. My first couple of patients were a breeze, then I had one that left me so scared that I quit and never went back. And again, it wasn’t the patient, it was a grandson that was staying there. When I addressed my concerns with my company, my supervisor just said that their policy doesn’t allow us to carry a weapon, but if I felt more comfortable I could have mine in my car. At that point I knew it wasn’t for me!
Real Accounts from Caregivers
I’m a rn hospice case manager. I’ve had a gun pulled on me once.. extremely terrified. In May my patients son never put up his pit bull and he attacked and mauled my arm. That was absolutely terrifying..You really don’t know at times what you are walking into.
Real Accounts from Caregivers
I’ve never understood why a background safety check is not part of the referral process. I had an incident happen to me when I was in home health, a patients wife walked in the room with two loaded hand guns while I was asking SOC questions. I could tell she was high on something so I left without finishing. All the agency cared about was why the Med rec was incomplete. If WSNA advocated for safety like they are elected and paid to do, things like this can be prevented.
Real Accounts from Caregivers
It’s an uncontrolled environment. No security. You enter their homes at your own risk. You also might catch a disease such as tuberculosis. Hospital emergency rooms are dangerous to work at what more going to someone’s home. There is no safety there.
Home Care Organizational Recommended Requirements
- OSHA recommends employers assess risks annually
- Allocate resources training, escorts, and technology
- Policies must encompass in-home visits safety procedures
- Implement measures to support staff in violent situations
- Assess risks of pets and clarify security process
- Emergency Preparedness communication plan (natural disaster, active shooter, pandemic, etc.)
Caregiver Safety Areas of Responsibilities:
- Workers must take a proactive role in their own personal safety
- Organization must train and provide workplace safety practices
- Patients must promote a safe in-home care environment
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics:
- Home care workers experience more than double the national rate of workplace injuries for all industries
- Studies have shown that up to 61% of home care workers have experienced some form of workplace violence
- In the United States, home care workers are most susceptible to verbal abuse and aggression, threats, and sexual harassment
- Over a 3-year period in the United Kingdom, 1,544 assaults (including sexual assault, hostage situations, headbutting, biting, strangulation, and weapons use) against lone healthcare workers occurred
- In Australia, a survey of 300 physicians who make home visits was conducted using an electronic form that evaluated their experiences over a year & findings showed that nearly one in two physicians encountered aggression; verbal aggression was most common
Safety for Your
Most Valuable Asset
The dangers for Hospice Clinicians, traveling nurses and in home health care professionals come in many forms: unsafe neighborhoods, midnight calls for urgent care, and high-strung friends and family of the ailing patient. For homecare nurses venturing into unfamiliar homes daily, these risks are real.
Always Connected,
Always Protected
Testimonial
Industries We Work With
Home Health Care Safety
Learn More
The dangers for nurses and home health care professionals come in many forms: unsafe neighborhoods, midnight calls for urgent care, and high-strung friends and family of the ailing patient. For homecare nurses venturing into unfamiliar homes daily, these risks are real.
Social Work Safety
Learn More
Unfortunately, too many social workers have been the targets of verbal and physical assaults and some have even tragically lost their lives while performing their job responsibilities. Social Workers are often engaging in risky situations without proper safety training or technology. KATANA Safety can help!
Government & Child Social Services Safety
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High staff turnover related to safety risks associated with job puts child welfare system in crisis. KATANA Safety can help improve morale, reduce turnover, and keep employees safer.
Minimal investment in safety
produces a major ROI
KATANA Safety Pro’s patented “lone worker solution” boosts morale, increases Caregiver retention, keeps your team members safer by providing real-time help to those in need.
- Improves workforce morale & reduces turnover rate
- Retain experienced employees
- Expand Service hours and market opportunities
- 24/7 safety protocol is Simple, Easy Cost-effective to deploy
- Mitigates legal risk – Meets Osha’s Duty of Care Requirements
- Get Help Anytime, Anywhere at the Touch of a Button
KATANA Safety Pro Features for
Healthcare Workers
Patented Personal Safety Device
- Instantly unlock your phone to send alert with the flick of the trigger
- Piercing Siren or Silent Alert
- Creates a record for review by organization
- Attaches directly to smartphone so it’s always with you and easily accessible
24/7 Response Center
- Notifies your organization immediately
- GPS locator
- Emergency Dispatch
Enterprise Dashboard
- View live alerts with GPS location per user
- Compliance reporting and records
- Quarterly data trends and analysis
- Customizable
Immediate Help With the Click of Button
The Healthcare profession involves inherent vulnerabilities. Though unlikely, what happens if a team member is assaulted or injured on the clock? And what if you find out you could have done more to prevent it? Beyond that, what if others start asking if there’s more you could have done to prevent it?
Did You Know?
Healthcare and social service workers face an increased risk of work-related assaults resulting primarily from violent behavior of their patients, clients and/or residents.
Patient, Client and Setting-Related Risk Factors:
Working directly with people who have a history of violence, abuse drugs or alcohol, gang members, and relatives of patients or clients
Working alone in a facility or in patients’ home
Lack of means of emergency communication
Prevalence of firearms, knives and other weapons among patients and their families and friends
Working in neighborhoods with high crime rates
US Companies spend more than $300 Billion annually on legal fees, investigations and lost wages stemming from incidents of workplace violence, theft, injury and misconduct. Risk prevention yields a far greater ROI than responding to an incident after the fact.
KATANA Safety is an easy-to-use platform that powers enterprises to help mitigate risks and create a “return on prevention” by surfacing actionable people-sourced safety and security intelligence, on some of the most critical types of risks facing organizations today.
We provide innovative technology to mitigate risk, reduce liability, and assist with OSHA’s Lone Worker Duty of Care Requirements.
House Passes Workplace Violence Prevention for Health Care and Social Services Act
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If you are interested in learning how KATANA Safety Pro can benefit your business and provide your employees peace of mind, please reach out by completing the form below or calling one of our representatives at 1-855-KATANA1.