Alpha Thunder Tags-5 WC blog 64
Tablet Theft-3
i-pad Theft-3
Don’t Allow Misplaced Medical Devices To Become Stolen Medical Devices Protect Them With Alpha Thunder Tags
People have a tendency to be absent minded and lose track of things rather easily. I am the father of three young adults, I have many years of retail loss prevention experience and my current job is in a university library as an overnight supervisor. How are all these related? In all three situations I deal with or have dealt with people losing things and having things stolen (often due to carelessness). I can’t recall the number of phone calls my wife and I have made to locate “lost” cell phones (my own included). In my loss prevention years I had people walk away from purses and forget where the shopping cart was that had the purse in it. They were adamant someone took their belongings. Sometimes I could find the buggy; the customer had just forgotten how far they walked away from it. Other times the customer became so absorbed in their shopping they walked away and someone had in fact stolen the purse. In the library I am regularly finding students have walked away from i-phones, tablets, computers, wallets and purses, not to mention textbooks. Sometimes they even leave the library and forget their valuables altogether and return panicked, hoping we have located their belongings. Many times they are fortunate and we have the items, but now and then these things are stolen. So how does this relate to mobile medical devices? Many medical offices are now using mobile medical technology and the use of them continues to grow. People are the same anywhere you go and will misplace things such as cell phones or laptops. What happens in the case of a tablet theft, i-pad theft or a laptop theft from a medical office when it has been misplaced and someone picks it up and walks out with it? What information on that device is at risk? Alpha Thunder Tags are a great way to prevent the theft of these mobile medical devices.
Alpha Thunder Tags work with electronic article surveillance (EAS) systems to sound an alarm if someone should attempt to leave a building that has an EAS system in place. The tags themselves are attached directly to a mobile device. If someone attempts to walk through an EAS antenna and they have a device the antenna will sound an alarm and lights built in the antenna will flash, alerting staff that an event is occurring. The Alpha Thunder Tags also have a built in alarm that will activate in addition to the antenna alarm. Should a staff member forget they have a device on their person as they leave the building, theses alarms will activate and the device can be returned. A third protection is a tamper alarm that will sound if someone were to try to remove a tag in an attempt to commit a tablet theft or i-pad theft. Alpha Thunder Tags will not protect against a device being misplaced in an office, but it will keep the device from being picked up by someone who should not have it and stealing it and along with it, all the patient information it contains.
Returning to my earlier discussion of my experiences with lost and misplaced valuables, it is never a pleasant experience for someone to lose something that has information in it or on it that is sensitive to them. Wallets, i-pods, computers, all have the potential to harm someone if personal information is obtained by thieves. In the case of a medical tablet theft or i-pad theft, this concern is greatly multiplied. Now we are not talking about information stolen from one person, we are discussing the information of potentially hundreds or thousands of patients being stolen.
If your medical office is using mobile devices or preparing to use them, be sure to talk about the sensitivity of the information on the devices. Discuss the need to be careful to not misplace a device, especially where a thief may have access to it. Remember that people are human and will be forgetful, add the extra measure of protection to your devices with Alpha Thunder Tags.
For more information on Alpha Thunder Tags, contact us or call 1.770.426.0547
People have a tendency to be absent minded and lose track of things rather easily. I am the father of three young adults, I have many years of retail loss prevention experience and my current job is in a university library as an overnight supervisor. How are all these related? In all three situations I deal with or have dealt with people losing things and having things stolen (often due to carelessness). I can’t recall the number of phone calls my wife and I have made to locate “lost” cell phones (my own included). In my loss prevention years I had people walk away from purses and forget where the shopping cart was that had the purse in it. They were adamant someone took their belongings. Sometimes I could find the buggy; the customer had just forgotten how far they walked away from it. Other times the customer became so absorbed in their shopping they walked away and someone had in fact stolen the purse. In the library I am regularly finding students have walked away from i-phones, tablets, computers, wallets and purses, not to mention textbooks. Sometimes they even leave the library and forget their valuables altogether and return panicked, hoping we have located their belongings. Many times they are fortunate and we have the items, but now and then these things are stolen. So how does this relate to mobile medical devices? Many medical offices are now using mobile medical technology and the use of them continues to grow. People are the same anywhere you go and will misplace things such as cell phones or laptops. What happens in the case of a tablet theft, i-pad theft or a laptop theft from a medical office when it has been misplaced and someone picks it up and walks out with it? What information on that device is at risk? Alpha Thunder Tags are a great way to prevent the theft of these mobile medical devices.
Alpha Thunder Tags work with electronic article surveillance (EAS) systems to sound an alarm if someone should attempt to leave a building that has an EAS system in place. The tags themselves are attached directly to a mobile device. If someone attempts to walk through an EAS antenna and they have a device the antenna will sound an alarm and lights built in the antenna will flash, alerting staff that an event is occurring. The Alpha Thunder Tag also have a built in alarm that will activate in addition to the antenna alarm. Should a staff member forget they have a device on their person as they leave the building, theses alarms will activate and the device can be returned. A third protection is a tamper alarm that will sound if someone were to try to remove a tag in an attempt to commit a tablet theft or i-pad theft. Alpha Thunder Tags will not protect against a device being misplaced in an office, but it will keep the device from being picked up by someone who should not have it and stealing it and along with it, all the patient information it contains.
Returning to my earlier discussion of my experiences with lost and misplaced valuables, it is never a pleasant experience for someone to lose something that has information in it or on it that is sensitive to them. Wallets, i-pods, computers, all have the potential to harm someone if personal information is obtained by thieves. In the case of a medical tablet theft or i-pad theft, this concern is greatly multiplied. Now we are not talking about information stolen from one person, we are discussing the information of potentially hundreds or thousands of patients being stolen.
If your medical office is using mobile devices or preparing to use them, be sure to talk about the sensitivity of the information on the devices. Discuss the need to be careful to not misplace a device, especially where a thief may have access to it. Remember that people are human and will be forgetful, add the extra measure of protection to your devices with Alpha Thunder Tags.
For more information on Alpha Thunder Tags, contact us or call 1.770.426.0547
