Staff duress with
room-level accuracy,
across two pediatric hospitals.

In a 6-floor, 130,000 m² hospital, knowing that someone triggered an alert somewhere on level 4 isn't enough. Pole Star delivers indoor location close to the room level - on the existing Wi-Fi infrastructure, with no heavy hardware rollout.

4,000+ badges across two facilities
ClientChildren's hospital system
SectorHealthcare · pediatric
Use caseStaff duress
TechnologyBLE on HPE Aruba Wi-Fi
Pediatric hospital building where the staff duress system is deployed
Project scope

Two facilities, different scales and layouts

A large pediatric hospital network composed of two distinct sites - each with its own footprint, floor count and operational constraints.

Site 01

Main hospital

260beds
130,000
6floors
Site 02

Regional hospital

130beds
60,000
8floors
4,000+
staff badgeswith emergency alert button
1,500+
HPE Aruba APsBLE-enabled, already installed
Room-level
locationacross multi-floor buildings
API
integrationwith a global duress provider
Room-level location · an alert resolves to a room, not a floor
Context & challenges

In a large hospital, a floor number isn't a location

In these complex, multi-floor healthcare environments, staff safety is a critical concern. Medical personnel may face emergency or high-risk situations where rapid alerting and precise indoor location are essential to ensure timely intervention.

The difficulty is scale combined with precision. Across 190,000 m² and up to 8 floors, an alert that only narrows a search to a wing still costs responders minutes - the minutes that matter most.

The main challenge

Deploy a reliable, real-time staff duress solution capable of delivering room-level accuracy across large buildings - while leveraging the existing Wi-Fi infrastructure and integrating with established hospital safety systems.

Room-level accuracy across large, multi-floor buildings
Existing Wi-Fi only no heavy hardware rollout
Real-time reliability for safety-critical alerting
Integration required with established hospital safety systems
Multi-floor pediatric hospital building covered by the staff duress deployment
Solution deployed

One button, and responders know the room

Pole Star implemented a staff duress solution based on BLE-enabled badges, allowing healthcare staff to trigger an alert instantly in case of danger.

1

Staff trigger the alert

Each of the 4,000+ badges carries an emergency alert button - pressed instantly, wherever the member of staff is.

2

BLE signals compute the position

When an alert is activated, the badge's BLE signals are used to compute the real-time indoor location of the staff member, with precision close to the room level.

3

Alerts reach response teams live

Alerts and location data are transmitted in real time to security and response teams, enabling immediate situational awareness and faster intervention.

4

Scaled on infrastructure already there

By relying on the existing Wi-Fi BLE infrastructure, the solution scales across large hospital buildings without requiring heavy additional hardware deployment.

Healthcare staff member wearing a BLE duress badge in a hospital

Why room-level changes the outcome

The difference between a floor-level and a room-level alert is the difference between searching and arriving. In a 130,000 m² building, that gap is measured in minutes - and in a duress situation, minutes are the whole point.

Architecture & solutions

Built to plug into the safety systems already in place

The solution relies on Pole Star's indoor location platform, designed to ensure seamless interoperability with existing hospital safety systems.

Architecture · from badge alert to response team

NAO® Track

For real-time position computation from badge signals.

Continuous BLE exploitation

Ongoing use of the BLE signals emitted by staff badges, captured by the existing access points.

Real-time APIs

For transmitting alerts and location data to third-party systems.

Supervision interfaces

Dedicated supervision and visualization interfaces for security and response teams.

Hospital security and response team monitoring staff duress alerts

This architecture ensures seamless interoperability with existing hospital safety systems - the duress platform already in place keeps its role, and gains precise location.

Operational benefits

Measurable operational and safety improvements

Significant reduction in intervention time

Through immediate and reliable location when an alert is raised.

Improved safety for healthcare staff

Including in sensitive and high-risk areas.

Full coverage of complex buildings

Across both sites, without massive infrastructure changes.

Interoperability preserved

With existing security and staff duress systems.

Room-level location turns a duress alert from a signal into an actionable destination - and that is what shortens intervention time.

Partner HPE Aruba Networking
Your turn

A duress alert is only as useful as the location attached to it

If your staff carry duress badges but responders still have to search, we can show you what room-level location changes - on the Wi-Fi network you already run.

  • Room-level accuracy across multi-floor buildings
  • Runs on existing BLE-enabled Wi-Fi access points
  • Interoperable with your current duress and security systems
Talk to our team
Book a demo

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