Author: Karen Winn, Senior Customer Success Manager, CriticalArc
Introduction
In a fast-paced and somewhat precarious world, SafeZone is a comprehensive solution with the ability to support response to a wide range of emergencies with a holistic approach as a life safety and emergency management platform. The technology of SafeZone enhances and supports organizations to optimize outcomes of emergency management and embedded emergency plans. This solution can provide operational coordination, response capabilities, real-time information, and decision-making communications to support organizations in the event of emergencies.
Let’s talk about Emergency Management
What is emergency management; this is about organizations large and small being prepared and able to respond to emergencies effectively and efficiently. This can include anything from medical emergencies, natural disasters, non-natural emergencies, and threatening incident emergencies.
These types of emergencies can range from:
The purpose of emergency management is to keep people safe and minimize the damage caused by any emergency. This includes everything from coordination of response to protecting organizational assets and infrastructure. An emergency plan contains instructions on what to do should an emergency occur at your organization. Your emergency plan must be tailored to your workplace.
Across the globe, there are strict laws, legislation, regulations, and accreditations that outline the requirements of emergency management. Breaches of these laws or best practices can jeopardize an organization’s reputation and ability to continue operating successfully.
We often hear the phrase “Duty of Care”. This means as an employer, you have the responsibility for the health and safety of everyone in your workplace, including visitors. This is your ‘primary duty of care’, which also includes taking all reasonable steps not to cause foreseeable harm to another person or their property.
All workers have a “Duty of Care” while at work; workers must take reasonable care for their own health and safety, and that of others who may be affected by the worker’s acts or omissions.
Finally, any person present at a workplace has a “Duty of Care”, including customers and visitors who also must take reasonable care of their own health and safety, and that of others who may be affected by their actions or omissions.
As you can see everyone has a duty of care, or responsibility, to make sure that they and other people are safe in the workplace. Duty of care highlights the importance of taking reasonable measures to implement a robust emergency management procedure that is supported by an emergency response plan. This ensures compliance with appropriate industry standards, best practices, and statutory safety regulations.
All businesses and organizations are required to have an Emergency Response Plan (ERP) that includes training, testing, and auditing schedules to review and support the plan in accordance with governing laws, regulations, and legislation.
What is the WHS 43 regulation in Australia?
43—Duty to prepare, maintain, and implement an emergency plan
Regulation 43 requires a PCBU (employer) at a workplace to ensure that an emergency plan is prepared for the workplace which provides for specified procedures including effective response to an emergency, evacuation procedures, medical treatment and assistance, and effective communication.
What is OHSA 1910.38 – Emergency Action Plans in the USA? (DIRECTIVE NUMBER: CPL 2-1.037)
This is the National regulation that defines what an emergency action plan should include, such as contact details of individuals that are maintained and current, evacuation routes, what to do during an emergency, risk mitigation for people and facilities, and a detailed communication procedure that is followed during and post a specific emergency event. According to federal regulations, an EAP is mandatory for OSHA compliance.
What are the Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 in the UK?
This regulation covers emergency requirements that should include what to do if a major incident occurs at your workplace and involves risks to the public, rescuing employees, or co-ordinating emergency services.
An Emergency Response Plan should be designed to outline what personnel (workers) and others (contractors, students, and visitors) at a workplace should do in an emergency and must provide emergency procedures, and evacuation procedures and include an effective coordinated response to an emergency.
SafeZone: A Holistic Approach
SafeZone can support the ERP through the lifecycle of mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery.
Getting assistance with the SafeZone app at the touch of a button – emergency, first aid, and help
The duress buttons link personnel to emergency response enabling real-time support and communications. This supports organizations with onsite response teams and organizations with remotely monitored response coordination.
- SafeZone® OmniGuard provides each responder and the command center with a real-time situational view of all responders and their availability
- The SafeZone app enables people to raise an alert that immediately shares their location with the SafeZone Command and all responders
- The command center and responders will immediately know the identity and GPS location of the person calling for help
- Remotely monitored response has real-time situational information of alert raised
- Remotely monitored response will initiate agreed emergency and escalation processes for immediate response
- SafeZone can reduce response times, enabling organizations to optimize the outcome of incidents
Mass Communications / Emergency Notification System
The functionality of mass communications enables multi-tier delivery methods of information to the organization’s personnel, specific groups, and or locations based on the emergency unfolding. The information can be delivered by SMS, push notification, and email. Individuals receive alerts via their mobile phone with instructions e.g., “Evacuate”. The multi-tier notification delivery enables capturing personnel and keeping them informed with directions from the organization during an emergency or warnings of a possible serious event.
SafeZone Chat
The chat functionality enables 1st tier responder teams, 2nd tier first aid/fire wardens, and Critical Incident Management teams to communicate in real-time simultaneously during an event/incident. The communications are captured in the SafeZone app securely and can support a significant area of post-incident reviews with customizable and timestamped chat sessions.
Lone or vulnerable workers
Where organizations have personnel who are working in high-risk environments or personnel working alone, the SafeZone app can provide onsite response teams and externally supported responses with real-time information for everyone.
- SafeZone enables your response team to understand who and where these personnel are located so response teams can better support and protect them and reduce your organization’s risk
- SafeZone can automatically check-in personnel when they enter a high-risk location so response teams are aware and can contact them as required
- SafeZone can trigger proactive alarms to ensure personnel are still safe due to high risk – an employee cancels the alarm or the response team is prompted to initiate the response process
- Provide response teams and managers with a view of workers in a variety of high-risk environments both indoors and outdoors to support risk mitigation irrespective of location and taskings
Analysis & Reporting
SafeZone has easy-to-use reporting functionality to generate report data related to raised alerts, check-ins, security patrols, communications, and other feature options.
- SafeZone provides organizations with access to specific criteria range data that can support procedure and process reviews
- SafeZone provides historical and live data feeds so organizations can monitor and modify onsite patrol patterns in real-time
- View historical incidents and adjust response procedures and patrol patterns for optimal coverage
- SafeZone provides the unique ability to playback any incident(s) to reveal the location and availability of resources at each moment, supporting post-incident review and compliance
- SafeZone provides historical communication notifications and messaging data
Conclusion
The SafeZone app will provide versatility to significantly enhance emergency response and support emergency management to achieve optimal outcomes for various emergency incidents. SafeZone is adaptable and an innovative approach integrating technology and traditional legal requirements for compliance and governance to support organizations with a holistic solution to keep personnel and assets safe during daily operations and in emergency situations.