SMART Future of Care

It’s not that long ago we all used mobile phones to make calls and send an occasional text message. Nowadays, however, making a call is just one small function of our smartphones which swiftly replaced the old mobile technology. Twenty years ago, no one ever imagined that we would be able to fit a camera, thousands of pieces of mail, photo albums, a TV and many other handy tools in a device that fits in your pocket. And with the recent advancements that have been made in healthcare technology, nurse call systems as products share this new, SMART future.

SMART Technology in the Healthcare Industry

There are many separate devices, systems and pieces of technology used throughout the care home environment. Each produces masses of separate and disconnected data, most of which is ignored as irrelevant or requires manual collection by care home staff. These systems operate independently of each other, use differing application software and rarely if ever, do more than the basic functionality they were originally designed to perform. Rather similar to our mobile phones of 20 years ago.

As with all sectors of Healthcare, technological evolution is well underway. But can a traditional technology such as nurse call which many still refer to as a “bell alarm system” meet the current needs of busy care homes and become a sustainable technology for the future?

A SMART solution for Nurse Call systems

After 50 years in the industry, being at the forefront of development in Nurse Call solutions, Courtney Thorne has developed a nurse call system that is equipped to become the ‘smartphone’ of the care home.

Nurse call devices located around a care home become sensory components, intelligent enough to identify a resident in need. Using changes in levels of audio, light, the temperature along with traditional physical inputs, a variation in the environment or sudden deterioration in the resident’s wellbeing can raise an alert or be recorded. If the resident is provided with a SMART wearable device, monitoring of their movement and location, as well as recoding of their heart rate, sleep, falls, blood pressure and oxygen levels can happen automatically. Instead of intrusive and sometimes unsocial physical monitoring, residents can have their vital signs checked and recorded at any time. If an emergency occurs, the nurse call system will still summon help, but now one of its key functions is to record, store and make available data on the performance of staff, wellbeing of residents and efficiencies of buildings. All records are automatically stored in one place and can be easily accessed and even analysed remotely.

Inspired by limitless opportunities, the step we made took us on a journey from our well-respected wireless nurse call systems, to developing the Altra Care – SMART wireless nurse call solution.

The SMART system doesn’t just look smart, it is jam-packed with future-proof technology and has the capability of wirelessly integrating with different devices and applications used throughout care homes. This not only simplifies many functions in care homes, importantly it’s proven to make significant cost savings. The Altra Care achieves this by providing automation and monitoring, staff become more productive spending less time on paper-based admin tasks. Furthermore, secure cloud-based communication provides managers remote access to reports assisting them with more effective decisions.

We are excited about creating the future of care technology and we invite you to be part of it. Let’s meet at the Future of Care Conference to talk about it or if you can’t wait – contact us now.

Written by

Barry Vacher

Date

13.02.18