We must prioritize the safety of workers who provide essential, hands-on care, along with emotional and physical support, in patients' homes. This includes hospice and home care professionals who care for individuals who are chronically ill or disabled, requiring ongoing assistance. 

These workers are vital to a healthy society, yet they face increasing challenges in their roles. To address these issues, the National Association for Home Care and Hospice (NAHC) is hosting the 2024 Home Care and Hospice Conference and Expo from October 15 to 17 in Tampa Bay, Florida, an area still recovering from the previous hurricanes.

Individuals involved in purchasing and researching SafetyLine come from a variety of roles within an organization. This includes high-level executives such as CEOs and presidents, as well as administrative assistants and the lone workers who will use the technology. Each role brings a unique perspective and set of requirements when evaluating lone worker safety solutions tailored to their team's specific needs and challenges.

In October 2023, a home healthcare nurse was murdered visiting a halfway house. As part of her job, she was providing medications to a client with a record of sexual assault – alone. She was one of nearly 1.5 million home healthcare workers in the United States who enter clients’ homes to provide essential care and services for people with disabilities or chronic conditions. According to the OSHA, home healthcare workers can include ‘home health aides, personal/home care aides, companions, nursing assistants or home health nurses’ and “are employed in patients' homes and in community-based services such as group homes.”

These manual check-ins are problematic because they are at risk of human error, and employees will sometimes need to remember to check-in. Likewise, an employer will only notice if a lone worker checks in to confirm they are okay. This risk is exceptionally high in larger organizations where managers may need to keep track of teams larger than 30+ people – it can be challenging and prone to mistakes using traditional methods such as spreadsheets to keep track.

Lone workers operating in remote or challenging environments face unique risks requiring reliable solutions to ensure their safety and connectivity. Satellite devices play a crucial role in addressing these needs by providing dependable communication links where traditional networks fail. Whether stationed in isolated fields, conducting geological surveys in rugged terrain, or managing conservation efforts in vast, uninhabited areas, these workers depend on advanced satellite technology to maintain critical contact with their teams and emergency services.

Lone worker safety still needs to be a top priority for North American lawmakers. Despite more and more people working alone and in isolation or remotely, consistent, widespread lone worker safety legislation does not exist to protect these vulnerable people. In North America, lone workers are expected to grow from 320,000 to 605,000 users by the end of 2025.

In the dynamic landscape of occupational safety, the challenges faced by lone workers demand innovative solutions. At the heart of this quest for enhanced safety lies SafetyLine, a comprehensive lone-worker solution designed to address the unique risks associated with working alone. This blog serves as a guide to unveil the critical features and functions that make SafetyLine a game-changer in ensuring the well-being of lone workers across diverse industries.

Let's look at the role of the buddy system within the occupational safety context. This safety strategy is typically used in circumstances where an employee is paired with another employee to increase both people’s safety while at work. It is a safety measure that is intended to make the safety of a coworker the responsibility of an employee and vice versa, making sure they never work alone.

Occupational safety is connected to a number of organizational priorities including mental health, work culture as well as productivity and quality of the work produced. One of the biggest benefits of a safe workplace is that the quantity and quality tend to improve because employees feel more valued by the employer and value their work more as a result.

In this guide, we will look at the safety hazards that impact a lone worker’s well-being, as well as six critical areas within winter work safety that, when prioritized, will help ensure the safety of your people working alone. The areas discussed below have a significant thread connecting them all – preparedness and proactive safety.

Conducted in April 2023, SafetyLine Lone Worker conducted a work safety survey, and the results are now available. More than 1,500 SafetyLine users completed the survey, including lone workers themselves, safety monitors, and administrators across a range of industries, including healthcare, water and electrical utilities, government services, hotels, and hospitality.

As you will read below, SafetyLine provides a comprehensive suite of safety features that help mitigate lone worker safety challenges as well as a number of other hazards. This article will look at these valuable safety features and how they benefit lone workers, providing you with enough background information to make an informed decision when looking for safety solutions for your team.

So what does that responsibility look like? It entails safety protocols and practices that keep people safe and keep the organization compliant with local OHS legislation and regulations. Effective safety practices include safety training, proper PPE as well as safety technology like lone worker safety apps such as SafetyLine Lone Worker. As you read more, you will learn the top 10 benefits of using SafetyLine to help protect your people who are working alone or in dangerous work environments. We will look at specific features of the lone worker safety app, how they can help protect your team members, as well as SafetyLine app benefits.

Every employee will face several occupational hazards in their work. However, the severity of risk and injury is significantly increased when the employee works alone, without help readily available if they experience an injury or emergency. What if we tell you that these lone workers can be protected, providing peace of mind to management that these people can get proper medical help in an emergency? The SafetyLine Lone Worker app solves that problem, providing

Lone worker safety is always evolving. Like other areas of occupational health and safety, lone worker safety changes with the times and new safety hazards and risks. To stay on top of your lone worker safety and ensure it’s moving forward, employers need to have solid lone worker safety protocols, policies and procedures in action, helping guide important safety steps to protect these people.

Lone workers face unique safety challenges across various industries, including healthcare, agriculture, utilities, and social services to name a few. Working alone exposes individuals to specific occupational hazards that require careful attention and proactive measures. To ensure the well-being of lone workers, it is essential to understand the common challenges they encounter and implement effective strategies to enhance their safety.

Wherever we work, there are going to be occupational hazards that test our safety and security. It doesn’t matter if you’re working in a wastewater treatment plant or if you’re a home healthcare worker in a patient’s home – there will be safety hazards, big and small. But when you work alone, the risk of those safety hazards is elevated because there isn’t a coworker nearby to get or provide emergency aid if you get injured. “Lone working” can be defined as performing a task by yourself, without help readily available if you are in trouble.

Best practices for ensuring lone worker safety

In addition to staying on top of local safety legislation and regulations, there are a number of steps employers can take to make sure their lone workers are safe.

Communication and monitoring systems: The first best practice to ensure lone worker safety is to have effective communication and monitoring systems in place. It is essential that employers establish a system for workers to be able to communicate with others in case of an emergency……

Working alone in the water and wastewater treatment industry comes with unique hazards, and employers are responsible for ensuring the health, safety, and well-being of their lone workers. However, solving the complicated issue of lone worker safety is sometimes easier said than done. This article will highlight the dangers lone workers face in this industry and how an automated lone worker solution can help.

In the USA, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) does not have specific regulations for lone workers. However, OSHA requires employers to ensure a safe and healthy working environment for their employees, including those who work alone or in isolation (OSHA, 2022). Additionally, several US states have their own regulations that require employers to take specific steps to protect their lone workers.