Staff Duress and RTLS in Healthcare: Why RTLS Accuracy and Certainty Matter
Staff duress is not an operational problem. It is a safety problem.
In healthcare, real time location systems (RTLS) play a critical role in protecting staff. When a staff member presses a duress button, seconds matter. Knowing exactly where that person is, every single time, is essential to getting help to the right place as fast as possible. That is why staff duress solutions built on RTLS in healthcare must match the level of location accuracy to the level of risk in each area of a facility.
Lower Risk Areas: Zonal Awareness Can Be Enough
In some areas of a hospital, safety incidents are less likely to occur or are easier to visually identify. These may include administrative areas, corridors, public spaces, or locations with lower patient interaction.
In these environments, zonal or near room level accuracy from RTLS is often sufficient. Bluetooth® Low Energy (BLE) based RTLS works well here, providing broad indoor coverage and reliable awareness of where a staff member is located within a general area. BLE enables RTLS based staff duress coverage at scale without over engineering areas where extreme precision is not required.
Higher Risk Areas: RTLS Precision You Can Trust Every Time
In patient care areas, especially behavioral health units, emergency departments, and inpatient rooms, staff duress events are more likely to occur and can be far more serious.
In these environments, RTLS accuracy must be precise and guaranteed. It is not enough to know which zone someone is in. Responders need to know the exact room, bed, or bay with absolute certainty. False positives or ambiguity in RTLS data can delay response and put healthcare staff at further risk.
This is where Infrared (IR), Ultrasound Low Energy™ (ULE), or Ultra Wideband (UWB) are essential RTLS technologies in healthcare. They deliver room level and sub room level accuracy that works every single time, ensuring responders go to the right location without hesitation.
To select between IR, ULE, or UWB, it is critical to consider the total cost of ownership (TCOS), which is impacted by:
- The number & cost of infrastructure devices required.
- The battery-life of infrastructure & staff badges.
- The required maintenance costs of all infrastructure & tags.
As more staff members use mobile phones (and other wearable mobile devices), it is also useful to look for an RTLS technology that can leverage phones as RTLS tags.
Beyond the Building: RTLS for Staff Safety Does Not Stop at the Door
Staff safety risks do not end inside the hospital. Incidents can and do occur in parking garages, lots, and outdoor areas.
GPS extends RTLS beyond the building, enabling precise outdoor location awareness so help can still be dispatched quickly. For staff duress programs, this ensures RTLS in healthcare supports end to end protection, not just indoor coverage.
One RTLS Strategy: Right Technology, Right Place
An effective staff duress strategy using RTLS includes:
- BLE indoors everywhere for broad coverage
- IR, ULE, or UWB in targeted high-risk areas for guaranteed precision
- GPS outdoors for complete staff protection
This approach ensures RTLS technology is matched to risk, environment, and clinical reality.
The Sonitor Advantage: One RTLS Platform, One Badge, Total Coverage
SonitorONE™ brings all of this together in a single RTLS platform built for healthcare.
With ultrasound based RTLS technology, mobile phones can act as staff duress tags, using:
- Native GPS for outdoor location
- Native BLE for zonal indoor coverage
- The microphone for patented sub room level ultrasound accuracy
Sonitor also supports BLE and ULE hybrid RTLS badges, which can be located outdoors using nearby mobile phones acting as virtual gateways and sharing GPS location data.
The result is a unified RTLS solution for healthcare that adapts to risk, environment, and workflow without forcing hospitals to compromise between coverage and certainty.
When staff safety is on the line, RTLS accuracy is not optional.
