Exploring the limits of IP nurse call

A hospital’s nurse call system is one of its most essential pieces of technology. While it cannot treat injuries, cure conditions, or investigate symptoms, it does provide the essential communication tool between patients and medical staff and, as a result, is often a life-saver. Historically, however, the potential for that critical communication has been limited. While systems enabled patients to call for assistance from the medical team, they typically only allowed for one-way communication, with no scope, for example, for a nurse to reassure a patient that they were on their way. What is more, there was no capacity to change the tone or urgency of that one-way communication. As a result, the nurses’ station would receive the same type of alert from a patient needing a glass of water as it would from a patient struggling for breath and requiring urgent medical assistance. As a simple tool, therefore, it was vital, but very limited in its scope. Thanks to technology, all of that has now changed. Where once there was only one-way communication, healthcare staff and patients can now communicate effectively between the bed and the nurses’ station, and, where once prioritisation of calls depended largely on where the nurse was on the ward relative to the patient at the time of the call, now there can be multiple call levels – helping to prioritise calls by time and type. All of this is thanks to IP (Internet Protocol) technology, which, over the past five years, has revolutionised nurse call systems from a basic button and bell to a genuine communication tool that can be integrated with other healthcare and communication systems, and can help save both lives and clinicians’ time.

Management advantages

In addition to the benefits of IP-based nurse call systems for patients and healthcare professionals, it is also important to note the management advantages that these developments in technology have brought about. While ‘old-style’ hard-wired systems were difficult to upgrade or alter once installed, the use of IP technology can help to future-proof a hospital against both developments in new technology, and changes to the layout or usage of the hospital building. With a fully-IP based nurse call system, integration with other IP-based technologies is relatively straightforward, allowing interconnectivity of the nurse call with DECT telephones, pagers, PDA devices, and patient entertainment systems… and who knows what other healthcare technology innovations may be just around the corner? The possibilities for integration with third party communication platforms not only ensure a flexible, scalable solution, but also introduce the ability to deliver higher levels of patient care – by directing clinical staff to an incident promptly and accurately. However, it is important for the specifier to understand the difference between a fully-IP based system, and a system that is simply built on an IP ‘backbone’, as the implications for system integration are significant.