PulseGuard Heart Rate Monitoring for Worker Safety

PulseGuard monitors worker heart rate and alerts supervisors when readings exceed configured thresholds, enabling timely wellness checks on the job site.

The BreakPoint wearable’s heart rate monitoring gives your safety team an early warning signal for exertion-related medical events — heat stress, overexertion, or cardiac episodes — that proximity detection alone can’t catch. Throughout every shift, the wearable’s optical sensor continuously samples each worker’s heart rate and streams the readings to the Console. When a reading crosses a configured threshold and stays there, PulseGuard alerts both the worker and their supervisor so a wellness check can happen before the situation becomes a full medical emergency.

How Continuous Heart Rate Monitoring Works

The wearable uses a photoplethysmography (PPG) optical sensor on the inner wrist surface to measure blood volume changes with each heartbeat. Green LEDs illuminate the skin while a photodetector reads the reflected light — a well-established method used across consumer and clinical-grade wearables alike.

The sensor samples heart rate at a rate of once every 5 seconds during active shift hours. Readings are processed on-device to filter motion artifacts — sudden movements from manual labor, vibration from operating equipment, and similar sources can otherwise introduce false spikes. Only readings that pass the on-device quality filter are transmitted to the cloud and compared against thresholds.

The wearable must be worn snugly on the wrist for the sensor to read accurately. A loose fit is the most common cause of inaccurate readings or a “sensor off wrist” status.

BreakPoint heart rate monitoring is a safety awareness tool, not a medical device. It is not FDA-cleared or CE-marked as a medical instrument. Do not use PulseGuard heart rate data to diagnose, treat, or make clinical decisions about a worker’s health. If a worker is in medical distress, follow your emergency response procedures and contact emergency services immediately.

Default Alert Thresholds

PulseGuard ships with three default heart rate alert tiers. These defaults are calibrated for a general adult working population in moderate-intensity environments and will work well for most deployments without adjustment.

Alert Tier	Condition	Default Threshold	Wearable Response	Console Response
Elevated	Sustained high heart rate	> 160 bpm for 60 seconds	Single haptic pulse	Amber alert logged silently
Critical	Very high heart rate	> 180 bpm for any reading	Repeated haptic pulses	Red alert with supervisor notification
Sensor Off Wrist	No valid reading detected	Sensor loses contact for > 2 minutes	Three short haptic pulses	Amber alert with device status flag

The 60-second sustain window for the Elevated tier is intentional — it prevents a brief spike from a strenuous one-time lift from triggering an alert. Critical alerts at > 180 bpm fire immediately on the first qualifying reading, without waiting for a sustain window.

Default thresholds apply to all workers unless you have configured a custom threshold for a specific worker. Custom thresholds always take precedence over the defaults.

Customizing Thresholds Per Worker

Some workers have heart rate profiles that differ meaningfully from the general population — highly athletic workers may sustain heart rates above 160 bpm during normal exertion without any safety concern, while workers with certain health conditions may need a lower threshold. You can configure custom Elevated and Critical thresholds for any individual worker directly in the Console.

1. Open the Worker Profile

   From the Console dashboard, navigate to Team → Workers and click the worker’s name to open their profile.

2. Navigate to Safety Settings

   Within the worker’s profile, select the Safety Settings tab. The current heart rate thresholds — whether default or custom — are displayed under Heart Rate Monitoring.

3. Enable custom thresholds

   Toggle on Use Custom Thresholds. Two fields will appear: Elevated Alert (bpm) and Critical Alert (bpm). The fields will pre-populate with the current default values.

4. Enter the new threshold values

   Enter the desired bpm value for each tier. The Elevated threshold must be lower than the Critical threshold, and both values must fall within the allowed range of 100 bpm to 220 bpm. The Console will display a validation error if the values are out of range or inverted.

5. Add an optional note

   In the Threshold Note field, enter a brief reason for the custom setting — for example, “Athletic baseline per worker request” or “Reviewed by occupational health, 2025-03-10.” This note is visible to Console admins and safety managers only, not to supervisors or the worker themselves.

6. Save and confirm

   Click Save Thresholds. The updated thresholds are pushed to the worker’s assigned wearable the next time it syncs, typically within 30 seconds when on-site.

What Happens When a Threshold Is Exceeded

When the cloud detects that a worker’s heart rate reading has crossed a configured threshold and met the sustain requirement (if applicable), PulseGuard triggers a coordinated response across the wearable and the Console simultaneously.

On the wearable:

• Elevated alert: A single long haptic pulse notifies the worker that their heart rate has been flagged. No further haptic feedback is given unless the reading escalates to Critical.
• Critical alert: The wearable delivers three short repeated haptic pulses in a distinct pattern, different from any proximity alert pattern, so the worker recognizes it as a body-related warning.

In the Console:

• The alert appears in the supervisor’s Live Alerts panel with the worker’s name, current heart rate reading, alert tier, and location on the workforce map.
• Critical alerts trigger an audible notification and cannot be dismissed without acknowledgment — the supervisor must mark the alert as acknowledged to clear it from the active panel.
• The event is logged in Safety → Heart Rate Events regardless of acknowledgment status.

Responding to a Heart Rate Alert — Wellness Check Workflow

When a supervisor receives a heart rate alert, the goal is a fast, calm wellness check — not an assumption that the worker is in immediate danger.

1. Acknowledge the alert in the Console to silence the notification and signal to other supervisors that someone is handling it.
2. Locate the worker on the Live Map using the real-time position shown on the alert.
3. Contact the worker directly — either in person or via radio — and ask them to pause activity and take a short rest.
4. Ask the worker three check questions: Are you feeling dizzy or lightheaded? Do you have any chest pain or tightness? Are you able to breathe normally?
5. If the worker answers yes to any question or appears distressed, follow your emergency response protocol and contact emergency services immediately. Do not wait for heart rate readings to change.
6. If the worker is fine, have them rest for at least 5 minutes, confirm the heart rate reading in the Console has returned below the threshold, and log a note in the alert record describing the check.
7. Mark the alert as resolved in the Console and select the appropriate resolution reason (e.g., “Worker rested, returned to normal,” “False positive — motion artifact,” “Emergency services contacted”).

All heart rate alert acknowledgments and resolutions are time-stamped and stored in the event log. This creates a documented record of supervisor response that can support safety audits and incident investigations.

Privacy Considerations

Heart rate data is health-related and handled with additional care within the BreakPoint platform.

Who can see a worker's heart rate data?

Heart rate readings and alert history are visible to Console Admins, Safety Managers, and the assigned supervisor for the worker’s current shift. Standard supervisor accounts cannot view the raw heart rate time-series — they see only alert events. Workers can view a summary of their own heart rate alert history through the BreakPoint mobile app, but cannot see their real-time readings or their colleagues’ data.

How long is heart rate data retained?

Raw heart rate readings are retained for 90 days on the BreakPoint platform, after which they are deleted from production systems. Heart rate alert events — which include the alert tier, timestamp, threshold exceeded, and resolution notes, but not the full reading time-series — are retained for 3 years as part of the safety event log. Both retention periods can be shortened by a Console Admin under Settings → Data Retention, but they cannot be extended beyond the defaults without a custom data agreement.

Is BreakPoint heart rate monitoring HIPAA-compliant?

BreakPoint is not a covered entity or business associate under HIPAA, and PulseGuard heart rate data is not considered protected health information (PHI) in the context of a workforce safety tool used by an employer. However, BreakPoint does treat heart rate data as sensitive and applies encryption at rest and in transit, role-based access controls, and audit logging to all health-adjacent data. If your organization has specific compliance requirements, contact your BreakPoint account manager to review your data processing agreement.

Can a worker opt out of heart rate monitoring?

Workers cannot individually opt out of heart rate monitoring if it has been enabled by their organization’s Console Admin — the feature is configured at the organizational level as part of your safety program. However, a Console Admin can disable heart rate monitoring for a specific worker or for the entire organization from Settings → Safety Features. If a worker has concerns about heart rate data collection, direct them to your HR team or the data privacy contact listed in your organization’s employee handbook.