Staff Safety is Key to Sustaining Home Health Growth

Home health is one of the fastest growing employment sectors. The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects employment of homecare workers to increase 22 percent by 2032, a much faster rate of growth than the average across industries. This upward trend is converging with a troubling, ongoing crisis in healthcare: violence against healthcare workers. 

Academic studies on violence against home health workers found as many as 87% experience verbal abuse from patients while providing care in the home. A separate study found home health workers who have reported verbal abuse are 11 times more likely to also report physical abuse. Incidents are often under-reported and these episodes are associated with high turnover.

Innovative approaches to home health care will only be successful if organizations can ensure the safety of the professionals who enter patient homes. To do that, they’ll need to embrace new technologies that support in-home caregivers in real-time, and implement new protocols that ensure they are provided with the security and comfort they deserve. 

Wearable duress buttons can help keep nurses safe in hospitals and, now, the same technology can be configured to work in patients’ homes – or wherever healthcare professionals are providing care. ‍

Learn more about this technology in Shan Sinha’s article in MedCity News. Sinha is Canopy’s CEO, and an innovator in the wearable safety technology space.