About Smallwood Manor 

Smallwood Manor is an independent tier 4 hospital in North Staffordshire. The country estate serves as a therapeutic environment for young people and their families to receive care and treatment.

Part of Cove Healthcare, the facility offers specialist inpatient support to young people experiencing mental health disorders, with a focus on general adolescent, high dependency and eating disorder services.

The Challenge

Smallwood Manor required high-performance safety systems to protect both healthcare staff and residents on site.

Levels of violence against staff in mental health trusts are continually higher than in any other type of NHS trust (Royal College of Nursing). This is partially due to the complex nature of mental health illnesses, which can result in patients becoming distressed and behaving aggressively toward staff. In these cases, healthcare workers need to be able to call for assistance rapidly to swiftly de-escalate the situation and provide the necessary support.

Equally, residents required accessible, easy-to-use systems that would allow them to call for support in case of a medical or mental health crisis. Should a patient become distressed, it’s crucial they – or another resident – could summon assistance from a professional within an instant.

Due to the challenging nature of the environment, Cove Healthcare needed the highest quality security systems that would alert staff to potential issues on the ward without undue noise and disruption.

The Solution

Cove Healthcare identified the Pinpoint System as meeting the highest level of specification.

Personal Infrared Transmitters (PITs), which act as personal safety alarms, were given to all staff members to sound in case of an incident. Pinpoint’s PITs have two call levels, Assistance and Emergency, which correlate to the severity of the situation in question. By activating the alarm, infrared signals are transmitted to the Advanced Receiver Units installed within the hospital, triggering the system and alerting a response team to the exact location and type of the call. Doing so allows staff to intervene and de-escalate potentially dangerous situations, thereby reducing the risk of harm to workers and other residents.

Every member of the team was given comprehensive training on how to use the system and the protocol in place for responding to incidents. This was all carried out before the hospital opened to ensure staff were confident and competent in using the systems in case an incident were to occur.

Pinpoint’s Nurse Call Buttons were also built into the walls throughout the building for patients to use should they need assistance. Placing these at regular, accessible intervals in Smallwood Manor meant that residents could easily call for help in any situation or emergency.

The Results

Installing Pinpoint’s staff safety systems throughout Smallwood Manor maximised staff and patient safety, and significantly reduced the risk of harm. As a result, staff could focus on delivering the highest quality of care, and thereby improve patient treatment outcomes.

By offering thorough training ahead of the hospital opening employees felt reassured in how to use the systems effectively and could teach other bank staff how to do the same.

Lee Smith, head of Cove Health and Smallwood Manor said of the system “I’ve worked with all manner of safety systems, but none of them come anywhere near Pinpoint. It gives staff confidence. These types of environments can be quite stressful, and people need the confidence that they are safe at work in order to do the best job.”