The Retreat is a charitable, not-for-profit provider of specialist mental health care in York. The Retreat relies upon its communications system to provide patient and staff protection, with the coordination of services. Management turned to the expert provider of medical sector critical communications, Multitone Electronics.
As part of an internal review, The Retreat identified the need for a fresh communications product, as Dave Pearce, Maintenance Supervisor, said: “We needed a new pager system to support our critical emergency response functions. The old system relied on pagers that were notified via a telephone, which were not quick enough in summoning help in emergency scenarios.”
There were also specific practical needs due to the unique nature of the buildings at The Retreat. Dave added, “The Retreat is an old building with very thick walls, which would have made the installation of a wired call system highly disruptive to clients and staff, and ultimately more expensive to install.”
Multitone’s EkoTek product provides The Retreat with onsite two-way wireless for staff protection and an alert that raises an alarm from the touch of a button, or lack of response from the user. With location details provided with the alarm, assistance is directed straight to the person in need.
The Retreat identified reasons for choosing EkoTek, the first being that it offered a simple and straightforward installation. Dave said: “As a battery powered mesh wireless system, we were able to install EkoTek quickly across the site, whilst still being able to operate the old legacy system. This greatly reduced the impact of the installation on the hospital.”
The maintenance team at The Retreat already had experience of working with the Multitone EkoTek System and felt confident with the product. As for running costs, The Retreat maintains the system itself. And as for the product support, Dave added: “Multitone provides excellent backup, advice and training, both from the sales and account team, along with the engineers that have assisted us throughout the process.”
Staff and patients can summon assistance at the touch of a button, with details of their location relayed to the appropriate team or person. The new network also provides coverage for all parts of the hospital complex, so personnel (including lone workers), clients and visitors are protected.
This has made a difference to the procedure in an emergency, as Dave said: “Beforehand, at one unit within the facility, our staff had to use the telephone pager system to call for assistance from across the hospital. This could have resulted in a delay in response times. Now we have the Multitone system we can summon assistance immediately when required. The system has provided us with a modern, fit for purpose, emergency response solution that works well across the hospital. With technical expertise, excellent products and very helpful customer support, we would happily recommend Multitone as an ideal communications supplier for other medical organisations.”
