Challenge
Many hospitals deploy a variety of solutions to assist their staff in caring for their patients. Often these systems have overlapping functionalities requiring the staff to learn and use multiple devices and workflows to carry out, what should be, simple tasks. One such scenario is when a hospital uses an RTLS solution that is separate from their nurse call solution.
A nurse call solution alone would have difficulty identifying which caregivers are closest to the patient in need if the nurses themselves are unable to respond immediately. An RTLS solution alone would not be able to respond to the same alarm messages as the nurse call application. A user would need to switch back and forth between the applications, reducing the care given to each patient.

Solution
To provide a fully integrated experience, each staff member wears a small active RFID tag in a wristband, on a lanyard around the neck or on a keychain pendant. These tags work in conjunction with GuardRFID infrastructure hardware and AllGuard® software to locate nursing staff within the building. When a patient call is generated within the Ascom system, it is sent to nursing staff via an overhead page or to their Ascom mobile device. Once the RTLS system indicates that a qualified staff member has entered  the room where the call was generated, the alarm call is automatically canceled and a dome light illuminates in the room to show that a staff member is handling the call. The solution logs events for reporting and response analysis. In emergency situations, caregivers can press their RFID tag button to call for help without needing to reach for a separate device.

Automate event handling and staff locating by combining two effective systems in one powerful solution.
Reduce Alarm Fatigue for nursing by efficiently routing patient requests for assistance to the relevant people and promptly cancelling the request when a staff member has responded.

The integration of GuardRFID RTLS solution with the Ascom Telligence nurse call system gives nurses the ability to automatically cancel patient calls and illuminate a dome light when a caregiver enters patient rooms. An appropriately qualified caregiver can also be quickly located in events where their expertise is required. The GuardRFID tags’ push button can be used by staff to call for assistance by generating an alert in the software application and revealing the location of the staff member needing help.