5 Essential Components of a Nurse Call System
February 9, 2023
Healthcare facilities, including hospitals, assisted living facilities, senior living facilities, and more, all need security systems in place to protect the facility, staff, patients and residents, and visitors. When it comes to patient protection and staff protection and efficiency, an effective nurse call system is imperative. Here are a few essential components of a nurse call system:
1. Wireless and Wired Options
There are pros and cons for both wired and wireless nurse call systems. What works best for each facility will depend on the existing infrastructure, operating procedures, and more. In many cases, a hybrid mix of both types of nurse call systems works the best. Having the options available to allow you to build, customize, and integrate the right components for the best nurse call solution for your facility is key.
2. Multiple Call Point Options
Being able to call for help or request assistance when needed is one of the biggest ways nurse call systems improve patient safety. Comfortable wearables and portable pendants can provide nurse call capabilities for patients when they are mobile and allow them to call for assistance when and where they need it without having to get to a call station.
This is essential for patient safety and well-being overall, especially fall monitoring. In addition to portable call capabilities, a good nurse call system should also be able to provide and integrate with permanent call stations. Having a dedicated call station in areas where they make sense, like bathrooms, resident rooms, and common areas can help improve the efficiency and coverage of your nurse call system.
3. Easily Accessible and Efficient Management Software
Another one of the essential components of a nurse call system is a way to easily manage it that is also easily accessible. In most cases, this is done through software and a comprehensive, centralized dashboard. This and other capabilities are technologies that improve long-term care.
Capabilities like extensive reporting, alerting, and notifications can help provide tools to increase response time and efficiency, improve workflows, increase patient safety, empower caregivers, and even combat alarm fatigue. Not only can teams monitor, claim, resolve, etc. calls on the go, but reporting can also provide valuable insights on improvements you can make across the board.
4. Customization and Scalability
In addition to the options offered, a good nurse call system needs to be able to scale to suit your operations. If your facility expands, your nurse call solution and all of its components and integrations need to be able to grow and expand coverage as well. Customization, scalability, and more are qualities of good security systems, including nurse call.
At the same time, it needs to be customizable to your facility and also to specific areas within your facility. The ability to customize integrations, notifications, alerts, etc. and set rules for them facility-wide and for specific wings, departments, etc. is essential. In addition to enhancing nurse call systems, these types of customizations are also ways to enhance the infant protection system in your hospital.
5. Integration With Other Security Solutions
There are a lot of people, pieces of equipment, and more moving in and out of and around healthcare facilities. This is why hospitals need comprehensive security solutions. One of the biggest keys to comprehensive security in any facility is integration.
Access control systems, wander management solutions, video surveillance, nurse call systems, and more all need to be integrated. They need to communicate with each other seamlessly and be able to work together to fully protect the facility and everyone and everything in it.
Get the Right Nurse Call System for Your Facility
There are several benefits of installing an emergency call system. When it comes to nurse call systems, it has to have the right things and be installed correctly to work well. These are just a few essential components of a nurse call system. Looking for these elements and other specific things you may need can help you choose the best nurse call system for your facility.
Every facility is different and every wing, department, section, etc. can vary in what components and customizations work best for operations. Choosing the right security systems integrator is a big help in getting the systems and integrations your facility and operations need. Contact NEPPS at 800-736-1456 to get started with your free site assessment.