Nurse call systems aren’t what they used to be—but in a good way. Comparing the latest generation of nurse call technology to a traditional system is like comparing your smartphone to an old-style rotary telephone. They’re both variations on the same theme but the new technology is light-years ahead in terms of performance and capability. Of course, it’s also more complex. Because of this added complexity, you will have to do more work up front to choose the best nurse call system for your senior living community.

Whether you’re upgrading or replacing an existing system, or installing one from scratch in a new building, you’ve come to the right place. This guide will walk you through the selection process, step by step, so you can get a clear understanding of what’s involved. However, there is a lot to absorb. You may want to use the information and strategies presented here as a checklist that you periodically refer back to while choosing a nurse call system. At the very least, we hope this guide will be a solid jumping-off point for your research.

Now, on with the selection process...

What is the best nurse call system, anyway? Is it most the expensive one? Is it the one with the most bells and whistles? The best system is an affordable, reliable one that most closely meets the requirements of the stakeholders at your senior living community. To gather those requirements, you will need to get input from administrators, care managers, nurses, personal support workers, other caregivers, residents and their families, building managers, IT professionals, security professionals, and anyone else with an interest in the new nurse call system.
 

Residents’ Needs

You should take the time to build a needs assessment of the residents in your senior living community.

• Some factors to consider:

  • Current number of residents. Anticipated growth or reduction.
  • Age, level of independence, and level of care (e.g., independent living, assisted living, long-term care, memory care).
  • Services offered (e.g., meals, cleaning, bathing, activities, physical therapy).
  • Seniors’ increasing familiarity/comfort level with digital technology.

When you have completed the needs assessment, think about the system functionality that will be required for your care team to meet the needs and expectations of your residents in the coming years.

Staffing Situation

Prepare a profile of your staff. Look at their qualifications, experience and effectiveness, plus the annual turnover rate. Is your care team large enough to handle the workload or is the facility chronically short-staffed? If you have staffing problems, do you expect them to improve, stay the same or get worse? Use your staff assessment to help define requirements for the new nurse call system.

Types of Requirements, with Examples

The requirements that you and your stakeholders generate will typically fall into one of several different categories:

1. Capabilities

   • Examples:

     • Staff members can initiate remote, two-way voice communication with residents and colleagues.
     • Residents can call for help from anywhere in the facility and their location will be communicated to the care team.
     • Care team can receive alerts on computers and mobile devices.
     • Nurse call system automatically logs key data (e.g., detailed alarm log).
     • Staff can use the system’s software to analyze their response times and generate reports. They can schedule automatic delivery of important statistics, perhaps on a weekly or monthly basis.

2. Performance

   • Examples:

     • System can locate the source of each alarm with room-level precision.
     • Fall detection devices register very few false alarms.

3. Technical

   • Examples:

     • Nurse call system must be capable of integrating with the existing phone infrastructure.
     • Nurse call system must be able to run seamlessly during a power outage or loss of internet service.

4. Security and Privacy

   • Examples:

     • System and networks must remain in compliance with our corporate standards to ensure that sensitive information remains private and secure.
     • Resident data must stay on the premises and not enter the cloud.

5. User experience

   • Examples:

     • It must be very easy for residents to request help.
     • Nurse call system should have features that minimize alarm fatigue among staff members.

6. Other

   • Insurance requirements?
   • Regulatory requirements?

Of course, these categories are not written in stone. You may choose to organize your list of requirements differently, perhaps sorting it by stakeholder group instead. However you order the list, you should endeavor to tag each requirement as high, medium or low priority.
 

To choose the best nurse call system for your senior living community, you will need to assess your current IT infrastructure. For example, what is the state of the Wi-Fi network? Should it be upgraded or replaced before buying a nurse call system? What about the LAN? Phone system?

You can reduce the cost of a new nurse call system by reusing existing assets. For example, you may find that your current pull cords, buttons, wiring and other components are compatible with newer systems. Equipment that’s less than five years old is more likely to be reusable.

Finally, list all of the other systems that you think should be integrated with the new nurse call system. Common examples include door access systems, security cameras, on-premise or hosted phone systems, and sensing devices like fire panels, smoke detectors and water sensors.
 

What is your budget for this long-term capital investment?

• Here are some costs you’ll need to consider:
  • System components and features.
  • Planning.
  • Deployment, including installation and system integration.
  • Training.
  • Support.
  • Maintenance, including service visits, periodic testing and ongoing software fees.
  • Replacement of wear items such as pendants.
  • Operating costs such as batteries for mobile devices, electricity, cloud computing fees (if separate from software).

As you tally up the costs, don’t forget to consider possible savings or efficiencies that may result from operating the new nurse call system.
 

What does success look like? You’ll have to decide that for yourself by creating a set of objectives that you want to achieve with a modern nurse call system.

• Your goals may include:
  • Shortening average response time by x%.
  • Reducing 911 calls from the facility by y%, perhaps to qualify for government grant money.
  • Reducing the number of multiple walk-ins by z%.
  • Reducing alarm fatigue.
  • Delivering more personalized care.

You should work closely with stakeholders to identify every key area where your organization needs to improve.
 

To make an informed decision, you should conduct a survey of available systems to learn about their capabilities and gain a basic understanding of the underlying technology. Great sources of information include vendor websites, case studies, white papers, blogs, brochures and webinars. You should also check out articles and online reviews in trade publications. If you’re able to attend healthcare or senior living tradeshows, you can speak directly to vendors and get your questions answered. Product demos can be very helpful for bringing all of your research into focus.

You may also find help closer to home. Ask stakeholders about their experience with other nurse call systems. Are there any that they strongly recommend? Any they recommend avoiding? If you can arrange site visits to other senior living communities, you should do so. Site visits are a terrific way to see nurse call systems operating in the real world. While you may not be able to visit local competitors, you can probably find out what systems they’re using and how well those systems work.

As you learn about the latest nurse call technology, be sure to identify valuable capabilities that you did not anticipate during your initial needs assessment. Also, make note of nurse call systems that are compatible with your existing infrastructure; tight integration produces efficient workflows—and there may be cost-saving opportunities, too.
 

Based on your research, prepare a list of available nurse call features and ask stakeholders to rate their importance. You can use this information and your initial needs assessment to determine a shortlist of the best systems. These are the ones with the most relevant capabilities and fewest unnecessary features.

Next, request quotes from the vendors on your shortlist. You may want to devise a scoring system for comparing these bids.

Factors to consider when evaluating nurse call systems and vendors:

• Products

  • Performance—Accuracy of locating technology and fall detection.
  • Durability—Expected service life of each component.
  • Reliability— Product failure rate, software stability, network connectivity issues.
  • Flexibility— Number of alarm generating devices, alerted devices and alert formats. Can the system work the way you do?
  • User-friendliness (user experience) and design aesthetics.
  • Scalability—Are there any limits that you need to take into account?
  • Interoperability—Consider existing systems and others that may be introduced later. Ease of integration.
  • Adaptability—How future-proof is the system?
  • Ease of deployment—Wiring, system calibration, intrusiveness on staff and residents. 
  • Closed or open system? Are you locked into using one vendor’s equipment?
  • Cloud-based or on-premise software?
  • Availability—Any supply chain issues? Lead time?

• Services

  • Warranty—Length and coverage.
  • Training—Amount required?
  • Support—Different levels of support available?
  • Maintenance—Service standards?

• Vendor

  • Reputation, track record and brand credibility.
  • Completeness and feasibility of quote.

• Overall cost effectiveness

  • Distinguish between price and value. Price is obviously important but, for best return on investment, always compare value. Where possible, try to reduce costs by declining unneeded options and add-ons.

After you’ve selected the best nurse call system for your senior living community, work with the vendor to plan the project, set an implementation timeline, schedule installation and conduct training. By paying close attention to detail, you can ensure that system deployment will go smoothly, without overly inconveniencing staff and residents. Once the nurse call system is up and running, go ahead and start tracking the key performance indicators (KPIs) associated with your improvement goals. The valuable data that you collect with the new system will help you make better, more informed decisions about everything from resident care to staff allocation.