Inovonics sees increased momentum for mobile duress systems in healthcare market

LAS VEGAS - (ISC West, Booth #25121 ), March 28, 2012 – Inovonics, the industry leader in high-performance wireless sensor networks for commercial and life safety applications, today announced that Radius® is gaining traction in the healthcare market. Radius is the security industry's first mobile duress and situational awareness solution that utilizes Inovonics' wireless positioning technology. Radius combines advanced location technology with the latest broadcast notification capabilities to pinpoint and communicate the location of mobile duress alarm devices, which is especially important in healthcare settings where medical staff are often spread over a great distance and in remote locations.

Hospitals around the nation are facing a growing safety concern. According to the American Nurses Association (http://www.nursingworld.org/), in 2009 more than 50 percent of emergency center nurses were assaulted on the job. There were 2,050 assaults and violent acts reported by registered nurses that resulted in an average of four missed work shifts. As a result, many hospitals are turning to wireless technologies to help prevent workplace assaults.

"At Avera Queen of Peace Hospital, we place a high degree of importance on employee safety, and initially implemented Inovonics' mobile duress alarm system to provide staff members with a wireless panic button in case of a potentially harmful event," explained Glen Vilhauer, operations supervisor at Avera Queen of Peace. However, "with Radius, we have been able to expand the coverage of the duress system beyond the main hospital building to outlying clinics and parking lots. This means, our staff reaps the benefits of Radius beyond the walls of the hospital building," said Vilhauer.

Radius monitors any Inovonics' end device, provides immediate notification when help is needed, directs responders to the exact location of the call for help and can offer broadcast capabilities in response to widespread emergency situations. It is ideal for staff protection applications on healthcare campuses such as hospitals, emergency departments, and psychiatric wards. Radius' broadcast capabilities also provide an important function that goes well beyond a simple alert from one individual. It can be used to signal that a larger, more widespread concern is taking place somewhere within the hospital setting thus indicating an early warning/prevention of a "lock-down" situation via the broadcast alert function. This same system can also be used to automate temperature checks for freezers and refrigerators and prevent theft of large assets.

Unlike traditional hard-wired control panel systems that have been used to detect safety issues and report alarms, Radius provides a complete end-to-end, IP-enabled wireless solution for the security market. Based on the fully supervised Inovonics wireless network, Radius can work alone or be integrated with other safety and security systems. Key features and benefits of Radius include:

• Location: Radius allows for mobile duress applications by accurately determining where an alarm is coming from within a building or campus setting.

•  Notification: Radius coordinates event monitoring and broadcast notification. It communicates information from in-building systems and routes them to alert devices, such as pagers, emails and mobile phones using text messaging or voice mail. Radius also packages multiple in-building systems into a single notification solution allowing for more efficient and quicker responses.

•  Monitoring: Radius works with the complete line of Inovonics end devices including pendant transmitters, universal transmitters and motion detectors. It can also integrate to other existing in-building systems such as access control or environmental monitoring.

"With the Inovonics Radius system, healthcare workers can be assured that their call for help will result in immediate notification to the appropriate responders to the exact location of the emergency," explained Mark Jarman, president of Inovonics. "As in the instance of Avera Queen of Peace, Radius does not stop at security and providing broadcast notification to staff in the event of an emergency, it can also be used to automate temperature checks for freezers and refrigerators, track large assets and prevent theft".

Configurations, Availability and Pricing:

Radius can be used within single hospital buildings or scale to cover large multi-building healthcare campuses. It can be easily integrated with other fire and safety and security systems. It is available now and pricing varies based on customer needs and configuration. For more information, visit Inovonics website at www.inovonics.com/radius or join the conversation at www.twitter.com/inovonics.