Hard Wired or Wireless, Speech or No Speech & More

It’s a big decision to make. We know.

Wired or Hard Wired

In essence, if you can tolerate wiring, a wired system always wins hands down. It will be cheaper to supply, comes with a huge amount of extra features and will be substantially more cost effective to maintain. A hard-wired system is almost always the better choice, as it’s reliability puts it way ahead of wireless systems. A wired system will typically come with a huge amount of upgrade options too – an important future proofing consideration.

By contrast, wireless systems are infra-red and radio based, as less wiring is involved, and the easy installation causes less disruption to your establishment – these are very tempting considerations but should be considered in isolation of all the points below. However always bear in mind that electricians are invariably needed to fit sockets around the whole premises. Overdoor lights are often still wired too. To get decent battery life, the units often appear oversized and ugly.  They are best suited to small systems.
You will also be faced with substantially higher lifecycle costs though – especially with battery changes – the cost of which is not limited to the batteries alone but also the time involved. Finally, when a wireless call unit goes faulty, the cost of replacement wall mounted control unit can be up to ten times higher than an equivalent wired unit.

There’s no battery back for wireless systems in effect since the batteries at each bedhead are the only power source.

Independent Circuitry Segments

It’s a good idea to choose a system with circuits that are divided into independent segments. Any rule exceptions to normal operation should  be immediately detected and will only affect the system locally. It will never disable the entire system.

IP Backbone

Although not essential, it’s increasingly common these days to allow for systems with an IP backbone. This facilitates upgrades and extensions in the future.

Battery Back Up

Additionally, the whole system should be underpinned by a reliable 24v PSU – invariably with battery back-up.

Integration

The ability to incorporate many items – for example, assistive care devices such as pressure mats for dementia care.

High Integrity Component Monitoring

What would happen if a handset failed, How would you even know? Is the circuitry within the handset monitored for peace of mind too? Would an overdoor light monitor a general fault or down to an individual led light segment failing? – These are the details that matter – especially when you consider the implications of something failing and someone being affected as a result.

High Integrity System Real Time System Health Scanning

A good partner would install real time hardware/software that will connect a service desk to your system. When assistance is needed, engineers would receive an automatic notification of the issue meaning that they’ll visit site with the right parts first time and quickly fix the issue without any wasted costly trips. If desired, it should also be possible to temporarily isolate any faults site is attended.

Safeguarding any calls/presences in the event of power failure

Under International VDE standards for Nurse Call Systems for Hospitals, one’s obliged to safeguard any calls/presences in the event of power failure for a minimum of 30 seconds in the system memory – few people adhere to this standard however. A well designed system should lose zero calls. It should poll

regularly to ensure that all nodes are operating healthily.

Changing wards needs

It’s essential that the call system is flexible to the changing needs of wards as time goes by. Transferring calls between areas and wards is something to be thought of in advance if feasible.

Speech

It’s absolutely vital to choose a system that can be upgraded for speech. You don’t need to have it everywhere but speech between areas saves on unnecessary wasted trips between floors every day and improves care.

Time Saving Apps

A great feature to consider nowadays is time saving one button reminder apps that with a press of a button can remind your typically busy staff of everyday repetitive tasks that they need to perform.

Versatile and Helpful Overdoor Lights

A good overdoor lights has large bright multicolour lamp segments, the colours of which should be capable of being changed to suit your site’s needs in a helpful way to staff that are responding to calls every day. An example would be a particular colour combination that would indicate that the bedroom needs cleaning or that it’s in isolation and should not be entered for example.

Touch Screen Display Technology and Anti-Microbial Protection

These days, choosing nurse call displays with touch screen technology is vital to help prevent the spread of infections.  Anti-microbial chemicals that are in built into the plastics are also very important. To address infection control targets, membrane keypad should also be capable of being easily wiped clean for added safety.

Choosing a System that Enables Phone

Managing your nurse call system on the move is vital to save time in responding to calls.

Nurse Call Reports

A well designed nurse call system should be capable of providing the ability to access useful data for managers. This is important to help meet KPI’s required to run care premises. Typical reports would include global or smaller scale areas.  Reports could  include call volumes, response times, faults and call exception details if required too.

Training

It’s so important to provide training on how to use the system from day one. Not just for managers but also for staff that have use the system. A refresher session might also be required since users will forget details unless reminded.

Choosing a Reliable Partner

It always makes sense to partner with a company who have a proven track record in such installations. It’s especially important with regard to phased changeovers where the old system needs to be transitioned carefully to avoid problems.

Compliance with HTM08-03

It always makes sense choosing a system that complies with HTM08-03 – the relevant standards, regulations and guidelines as set out in the Healthcare Technical Guidance document.