Medical Alarms in the Aged Care Industry

2006-10-09T20:33:00.000-07:00

Cordless Phone System Increases Sisters of Nazareth’s Responsiveness for Nurse Call

Background
The Sisters of Nazareth is an
aged care facility based in
Hawthorn, Victoria. The four
storey sixty year old building
holds 100 long-term residents,
each with their own room.
With nurses constantly on the
move throughout the facility,
having a mechanism to quickly
respond to resident’s calls for
assistance is vitally important.

The response challenge
The Sisters of Nazareth has 112 employees, of
which the majority are nurses and carers, but
also includes administration staff, cleaners,
therapists and food handlers. There are three
rotating shifts at the facility, with 30 staff working
each shift. Nurses are on constant call tending
to resident’s needs and must be able to respond
quickly to calls for assistance. However, with
nurses consistently on the move within the
facility, remaining contactable was incredibly
challenging.
Previously, Sisters of Nazareth relied on desktop
phones and pagers to communicate with nurses
and carers about calls for assistance. To request
assistance, residents use a button located at their
bedside or in their bathroom. Previously, this
action would trigger an alert in a nurse’s station
located on the relevant floor. Upon hearing an
audio alert coming from the station, nurses had
to return to the station and check which room
the request had come from before responding.
Darryl Haeusler, maintenance manager, Sisters
of Nazareth explains “Our biggest problem was
that these messages weren’t being sent directly
to the nurses. We had a couple of pagers which
nurses could use to receive an alert, but even
these contained no room or bed numbers so they
still had to return to their station and verify which
patient required assistance.
“It was a time consuming system that didn’t allow
the nurses to be as responsive to residents as
they needed to be. This was of particular concern
during emergencies. To decrease the time it took
to react to a resident, we realised that nurses
needed access to more detailed information
while on the move.”
A cordless solution
The Sisters of Nazareth began looking for a
solution to increase nurse responsiveness.
Darryl continues, “We wanted a mobile device
that provided both voice and text messaging
capability to the nurses no matter where they
are in the building. As well as providing more
detailed alert messages, we needed to give
nurses wireless phone capabilities in case they
required further assistance such as contacting a
doctor, or asking other nurses for help.
“We needed to reduce the number of times
medical staff had to consult the nurse’s station.
By increasing their mobility we could also increase responsiveness and our ability to
provide assistance on the spot. While researching
solutions to achieve this, the KIRK DECT system
came up numerous times as a respected and
durable solution.”
Sisters of Nazareth has implemented the KIRK
DECT 1500 system, with 32 wireless KIRK 3040
wireless handsets, and 10 radio base stations
to enable wireless voice and messaging access
throughout the entire facility. The system
interfaces to the site’s PABX, providing wireless
extensions so key users are always in telephone
contact. It is fully modular, offering the flexibility
to meet the changing needs of any business.
The KIRK 3040 handset features an LCD display
for text messages, a headset jack and vibrating
ringer.
To manage their onsite messaging, Sisters of
Nazareth implemented a ConnexALL messaging
solution which is able to interface with KIRK
DECT, pagers, nursecall, alarm and PCs connected
to a LAN or WAN. ConnexALL software provides a
single message management solution, allowing
wireless messages generated by a variety of
different sources to be simultaneously delivered
to individual or groups of recipients.
For Sisters of Nazareth, ConnexALL acts as the
interface between their patient call buttons
and the KIRK DECT system. When a call button
is pushed, nurses receive text messages to
their KIRK handsets which contain detailed
information about the location of the person
requiring assistance including a ward, room
and bed number. The system also delivers alarm
messages if certain doors are opened, increasing
security and protecting against wandering
patients. These text messages can be received
even while a nurse is already on a call.
The implementation took approximately
six months. Scott Eaton, Axess Telephone
Installations, who was responsible for
implementing the system explains, “To increase
uptake amongst the nurses, most of whom
weren’t familiar with this type of technology, it
was important that we staggered the installation.
This is one of the reasons the implementation
took as long as it did. We gave all the users time
to familiarise themselves with the KIRK handsets,
before we integrated the ConnexALL messaging.
“Perhaps the biggest challenge though, was
cabling such an old and large site.
We spent two solid weeks cabling the system, to
fine-tune radio coverage across all four storeys in
the building. Ensuring this level of mobility was
the most important aspect of the solution.”
Providing timely assistance
The integrated KIRK 1500 ConnexALL system has
given nurses access to the critical information
they need, when they need it, increasing their
ability to respond to residents in a timely manner,
which could be a matter of life or death.
Darryl adds, “The ability to send out detailed
messages directly to nurses in the wards via
ConnexALL has reduced the amount of time it
takes for nurses to provide assistance. The voice
functionality of the handsets mean they can
also call for support or advice on the spot, which
further increases their ability to provide timely
and accurate assistance.
“The nurses are really delighted with the KIRK
1500 system, and confident that they have true
mobility which increases their ability to provide
timely assistance to residents. Overall, we’re
very pleased with the KIRK handsets and the
ConnexALL system, and the enhanced level of
care the solution has enabled us to provide our
residents.” Darryl concluded.

CareTech believes with these new system add to its 5000 Nurse Call System can provide increased response time to patient needs.

please visit us at http://www.caretech.com.au

2006-10-09T20:04:00.000-07:00

St Andrew’s Hospital Benefits from Integrated Cordless Phone and Messaging in the Nurse Call.

Founded in 1936, Adelaide’s St Andrew’s is one of South Australia’s largest private hospitals. The five level building has 217 beds and is a fully accredited acute surgical/medical hospital. There are in excess of 1,100 telephone extensions in service around the building, with effective
communications being a vital ingredient to ensure the efficient and safe running of the hospital.

The response challenge St Andrew’s offers a range of facilities including 7 Operation Suites, a 14 bay Recovery Room, Critical Care Unit and 24 hour Emergency Department, Day Patient Suite and Short Stay Suite. These services are supported by a comprehensive range of services such as Medical Imaging, Radiotherapy and Pathology on site. St Andrew’s vision is: “To be leaders in healthcare delivery - without compromise.” Their methods to achieve this include providing exemplary customer service and providing high standard facilities. It was in keeping with this approach that the hospital selected the KIRK DECT 1500 system to meet their on-site cordless telephony needs. The KIRK DECT system attached directly to their existing PABX, removing the need to replace their entire PABX system. A cordless solution Cordless handsets are used by a wide range of hospital employees including doctors , nurses, orderlies, administrative and maintenance staff. There are currently over 80 cordless handsets in use, with the number expected to grow in the near future. The KIRK 3040 handset was selected due to its range of features, including its support for text messaging. The hospital received a turnkey solution combining messaging with the KIRK DECT system. Text messages to either KIRK and sets and/or to onsite pagers are generated via a number of existing alarm contacts throughout the hospital as well as via voice prompted activation from any PABX extension. The hospital has also recently embraced the new C-2010 Duress handset, as this provides an extra level of personal protection to cordless phone users. The “lone worker” function of the C-2010, which periodically checks that workers are OK, was particularly attractive to the hospital and Aged Care. Benefits for Integrated Cordless / Messaging A number of benefits have been derived by the hospital’s use of system including increased flexibility in how people are able to perform their work, improved response times and a general increase in productivity. The system has been extremely well received by staff, as demonstrated by the fact that almost 50,000 calls are carried by
the cordless system every month.

CareTech feels that the use of its 5000 Hosptial Nurse call medical alarm system intergrated with the Kirk Dect Cordless System is the most efficent and responsive system in the Hosptial and Aged Care Industry today.

2006-10-08T17:49:00.000-07:00

the Victorian aged care centres cop flak

According to the Age journalist Carol Nader
last Friday (August 30, 2006)

Here is the artical:

THE state's aged care facilities have not improved in condition in the past five years, and more were at risk of "failing, inadequate or obsolete" infrastructure, a report by the Auditor-General finds.
The report found most facilities had not improved since 2001 and many still need rebuilding. The State Government strongly disputed this.
Department of Human Services secretary Patricia Faulkner said the department did not agree with some findings as the methodology was "flawed". She said claims the overall condition of facilities had not improved was "simply not consistent with tangible fact".
The report, tabled in State Parliament yesterday, acknowledged that all facilities met Commonwealth certification standards. But it said its own survey of 49 centres found that 25 did not meet aspects of the criteria relating to fire safety standards. It recommended they be reassessed from time to time to ensure they continued to meet standards.
Between 1999 and March 2006, the Government allocated $336 million to public sector residential aged care buildings for capital works. This year's budget provided an extra $130 million over three years.
The department believes the problem identified in the report is more about poor documentation than non-compliance. The report acknowledges that "a lack of documentation does not mean that safety systems and equipment in a facility do not adequately address fire safety". But it says there is "insufficient evidence" to provide such assurances.
Aged Care Minister Gavin Jennings backed the department. He said some of the report's findings, particularly about fire safety, "don't ring true".
"I want to reassure members of the Victorian community that all Victorian public sector residential aged care facilities are fire safe and compliant and meet the standards required for their ongoing certification by the Commonwealth," he said.
But Opposition aged care spokeswoman Andrea Coote seized on the report as "a really damning indictment of this minister and the stewardship he has had of aged care".
Aged and Community Care Victoria chief executive Gerard Mansour said providers took safety requirements very seriously.

*** From the latest in statistics there are currently 50,000 people retiring each year and heading into 2012 that number will be 130,000**** I believe that there are many limiting factors and the main area where the government should be focusing is in telemedicine where people can stay in their own homes longer user medical alarm phones such as the CarePhone http://www.caretech.com.au/ these will allow people to have daily control of things like blood pressure and even more important daily check in the comfort of there own how the telemedicine structure will then allow the information or patient data to then be communicated back to the relevant hospitals. Conclusion hopefully decreasing the necessity for major funding to be pushed into the aged care industry.