Top 5 Mistakes when Buying a Nurse Call System

Having a functional nurse call system, whether you are a hospital, care home, or any other more specialised form of healthcare organisation, is a non-negotiable of providing a competent care service. While all of these types of facility share one thing in common (providing quality healthcare), every single type of healthcare organisation will have its own expectations of what a nurse call solution will provide, as well as different core requirements of the system itself. 

This is where the mistakes come in; if you don’t fully understand what a nurse call system is capable of, what your own facility needs out of said system, and how this system will meet the unique demands of your facility, it is quite likely you will run into some issues. From not considering the size and scope of your own organisation, to misjudging staff and patient expectations, this article will explore five of the most common mistakes people often run into when buying a nurse call system.

What Matters Most When Shopping for a Nurse Call System?

When shopping for the right nurse call system for your facility, there are several key factors that you must consider to make the right choice. A nurse call system, no matter the style or design, should at its core provide these basic tenets:

1. General reliability: Any nurse call system of repute needs to have a general, high standard of reliability. With patients and staff alike relying on these systems to communicate, dependable performance needs to be guaranteed during emergencies and the busiest of periods.
2. Ease of Use: A nurse call system with lots of complex and detailed features is only as useful as the staff utilising them. A good nurse call system should be intuitive and easy to use for all staff, with simple interfaces and training requirements.
3. Scalability: Healthcare organisations, in tandem with the healthcare industry, are constantly evolving to incorporate newer technologies, practices, and approaches. A nurse call system needs to be able to grow and scale with the changing environment of your facility without getting in the way.
4. Integration: In the modern age of medicine, all healthcare tools and technologies should realistically provide the option for integration with things like smartphones, tablets, and other care systems where possible.
5. Support and Maintenance: Even the best nurse call systems run into issues occasionally, so finding a supplier that includes ongoing technical support, assistance, and availability of local engineers is key.
6. Regulatory Compliance: Considering the number of regulations and standards that need adherence to in the healthcare industry, having a system that meets all of these best practices and standards while supporting inspections.

These are just some of the core factors that should be considered when purchasing a new nurse call system for your healthcare facility. Some of the most common mistakes when making this purchase occur when misjudging the value and need associated with all of the above.

Mistake 1: Choosing a system based on price alone

Any kind of new investment for businesses and organisations will always be at least partially dictated by cost, and this is true for healthcare facilities too. In these high-pressure environments, sorting out the system installation as soon as possible has one less obstacle when the cheapest solution available is picked. However, simply opting for the cheapest nurse call system on the market can bring with it lots of challenges. 

A cheaper nurse call system often means a less reliable option, often with more limited features and supportive infrastructures around it. A budget choice is also going to be highly unlikely to be moulded bespoke for your unique environment, making it a poorer choice in the long run and maybe even pricier than an option that wouldn’t need fixing or editing in the future.

Anyone looking to buy a nurse call system, while still considering the cost as an important factor, should instead consider the long-term value of the system, rather than the upfront price. The total cost of ownership, from support options, warranties, and future upgrade opportunities, needs to be evaluated, and how the system contributes to overall operational efficiency is important to understand. 

Mistake 2: Ignoring Future Growth and Scalability

Another common mistake made when looking for a nurse call system is in only considering the current needs of the organisation in the present, while neglecting to think about future growth opportunities. As already alluded to, the healthcare industry is one of the most commonly expanding and evolving ones you could work in. Regulations, best practices, and technologies are always adapting and changing as more is learned; this means that your organisation’s healthcare environment needs to be just as adaptable and scalable. 

Some nurse call systems, like our own here at Courtney Thorne, are designed specifically with scalability in mind. Our solutions for hospitals and care homes are built with wireless and hybrid technology, allowing our partners to quickly update their layouts and care services to adapt to new technologies and approaches. However, many systems are not built with this concept in mind, and are incredibly difficult and time-consuming to update or rearrange within what can often be incredibly busy hospital wards or care facilities. 

Buyers of these systems should instead ensure that they review all service-level agreements and better understand all warranty and maintenance options available to them. In turn, all buyers should self-assess their own healthcare services and environments, and decide whether future expansion and upscaling are a likely outcome within the coming years. If they are, then a more scalable nurse call solution is a must.

Mistake 3: Overlooking Staff Usability

It can be easy for some decision-makers to overlook that their staff will be the ones actually working with technologies like nurse call systems. One solution might be the right price and offer the right features on paper, but if the system is difficult to use and highly unintuitive, it probably isn’t the right choice – and certainly not the one that your staff will appreciate you making. We believe that all nurse call systems should be, at their core, easy to use and get to grips with.

If staff usability as a factor is overlooked, then you will run into several issues from the point of installation and throughout the lifespan of the system. You will likely see staff struggling to adopt the new skills and methods required to use the system, which will eventually lead to frustration amongst your care staff, delayed response times, worse management of calls, and a poorer standard of care overall. Since staff are the ones actually using the systems day to day, this is one of the most legitimately damaging factors to neglect in your decision-making.

To overcome the risks associated with ignoring this factor, all buyers should involve their staff in the decision-making process as much as possible. By being involved in demonstrations and hands-on trials from the outset, your staff will be able to get to grips with the system of choice much quicker, and even have a more informed opinion on the correct one to buy. When looking for a system, buyers should also prioritise certain features as much as possible, such as intuitive interfaces, clear alerts, workflow management features, and more that are along these lines.

Mistake 4: Not Evaluating Supplier Support and Services

Another common mistake made by buyers when looking for the right nurse call system is focusing too much on the product itself and what it offers, and not evaluating the suppliers themselves and what they can offer as a partner. These considerations are usually made post purchase and installation, and any lacking support features are discovered when it’s already too late. 

Common examples of some of the risks associated with this factor all revolve around the lacking service provided by the supplier of the system in question, ranging from slow response times when issues with the system pop up, a greater amount of difficulty in obtaining replacement parts, lacking availability from the support team (or no support team at all), and few options for ongoing training in the features of the nurse call system. Finding a supplier that goes beyond simply providing the system, and will actually assist you when issues arise, is just as important as the system itself functioning well.

To avoid these issues, you as the buyer should check all information available about the suppliers themselves and what they offer. Do they offer good warranty and maintenance options? Is their service well-reviewed, with testimonials to back this up? Do their engineers offer good coverage and reliable response times? At Courtney Thorne, all of our partners have access to 24/7 support by way of our Technical Support team, with engineers on hand to help with any issues that crop up, as well as a wide variety of other useful resources like 

Mistake 5: Assuming Systems are Universally Suitable for all Environments

One final mistake that many make when shopping for a nurse call system, is assuming that all the different types of systems available are a monolith, and will do the same things in the same way for any environment. This is not true. Nurse call systems utilise a wide array of different types of technology, nurse call accessories, and additional features that make them perfectly suited to specific environments. 

If you fail to consider what your hospital or care facility requires out of the system specifically, you will end up with a square peg in a round hole, wasting money on several features and accessories that aren’t relevant at all to how you and your staff run your organisation. If your system doesn’t match the needs of your facility, you will also run into operational issues like staff needing more training than would have been necessary, more confusion and stress in the workplace, and a less efficient service, and potentially a worse service in general, for the patients and residents using the system.

You need to ensure that you know exactly what is required of a nurse call system in your hospital or care home facility before evening thinking about buying a new one. Assess the current state of your facility; how it operates, how staff work, and what the technical day-to-day needs of the facility are. Consider things like the overall size of your facility, both in terms of workforce and the actual space, and identify any weak points in your service that you think a newer model of system could help solve. 

Then there is your organisation itself – do you run an assisted living facility, or a hospital or specialised care ward? To use Courtney Thorne as an example, we have a range of nurse call systems aimed at both hospitals and care homes, as well as a wealth of accessories to tailor the focus of the system even further – simply put, don’t buy a system with features built for a hospital if you run a care home, and vice versa. 

Final thoughts on these common mistakes

Investing in a nurse call system is a significant decision that can have a lasting impact on the quality of care you provide, the efficiency of staff, and even user safety. While it can be tempting to focus solely on things like upfront costs or feature lists, the most successful purchases are those that take a broader view of long-term value, reliability, usability, scalability, support, and suitability for the specific care environment. By avoiding the common errors we’ve discussed today, healthcare providers can make a more informed and confident decision overall that will have long reaching benefits in the future.

At Courtney Thorne, we understand that every healthcare setting is different. With our decades of experience, we can help healthcare organisations identify the right nurse call solution for their unique requirements. If you’re planning to invest in a new nurse call system or upgrade an existing one, get in touch with the Courtney Thorne team today for expert advice and guidance on finding the best solution for your facility.

Written by

Barry Vacher

Date

29.06.26