5 Ways Nurse Call Systems Optimize Health Care
Hospital staff often have multiple charges under their care at any given time. Accordingly, keeping up with each patient’s care is one of the biggest logistical challenges for nurses, all the more so in facilities with limited numbers of caregivers. A high-quality nurse call system can aid in keeping up with emerging and fluid situations in hospitals and clinics. Here are five ways that nurse call systems optimize health care in these facilities.
1. Directing Messages to the Right Staff Member
Many patients receiving care require the ongoing attention of multiple staff members with various specialties and roles within the health care system. Because of this, a nurse is not always the right staff to address an issue with a patient when it comes up. A versatile nurse call system can automatically alert the correct specialist or other care provider to eliminate unnecessary visits from over-burdened nurses.
2. Managing Workflow
Modern call systems provide real-time updates on what required procedures have or have not been performed. This helps nurses stay on top of routine responsibilities and anticipates incoming alerts from patients requesting attention.
3. Tracking Performance
The sheer volume of data that modern nurse call systems can collect, process, and distribute opens up entirely new avenues of application that previous generations of such systems could not. Nurse call systems can also keep track of nurses’ work numbers, identifying any issues with the performance of their duties and allowing for timely intervention.
4. Cutting Down on “Noise”
Health care industry analysts estimate that between 85-99% of alarms sounded by patients do not actually require clinical intervention from hospital staff. Next-generation nurse alarm systems can “control the noise” of these false alarms by providing more in-depth information to frontline workers before they respond to a call.
5. The Internet of Things
The so-called “internet of things” (IoT) refers to the coming, 5G-fueled interconnectivity of physical objects that “talk” to one another. In the health care context, examples include thermometers, blood sugar monitors, and heart rate monitors, among others. An advanced nurse call system can integrate all of the IoT data measured by connected devices, streamlining the delivery of care and helping to eliminate errors.
5G-capable nurse call systems are increasingly popular in health care facilities throughout Calgary and Red Deer. Moving into the future, they will become standard tools in service of improving care and patients’ outcomes when they require extensive care.
