Medisystems’ electronic nurse-call systems

The ideal patient care solution for modern hospitals

Medisystems electronic nurse-call systems are modern microcontroller-based digital systems. Each system comprises a central display unit placed at the nurse-station countertop which is cable linked to its associated set of bed units, mounted at each bed side, along with door units, mounted at the patient’s room entrance, and emergency alert units mounted within the patient room toilets.

Since these systems are installed all over the country, their components, spares and parts have been carefully selected for easy indigenous availability. The systems are also modular. This allows the user to select the correct system size initially, followed by a convenient future upgradation, whenever needed. For example, if the ward strength is increased after two years from 16 to 20 beds, all that is needed is the addition of the bed unit modules and upgrading of the central unit software.

The systems’ features have been designed to cater for hospital practices prevailing in India. Hence, the basic audio-visual arrangement has been designed as a simple red-yellow-green lamp code with easily recognisable audio chimes. The reset button has been placed only at the patient’s bed site, to ensure that no call goes unattended. To avoid confusion during multiple calls, the calling bed number is not merely indicated on the panel but it is clearly ennunciated in numerics or through ward graphics.

Added features include

Toilet emergency alert: Available to the patient in the event of distress while locked within the toilet. Nurse presence registration:Implemented by the nurse as she enters the patient’s room and indicated on the central display as well as in the corridor so that the nurse can be easily located.

Nurse help request: Can be requested by the attending nurse from the patient’s bed side, if the situation should require.

Additional call signals: Allows patient to call a ward attendant or room service from the hospital’s cafeteria or canteen either through the nurse display or directly.

Instrument alarm relay: A useful feature especially in the ICU/post-op area where a number of monitors and syringe/ infusion pumps are at the bed side.

I-V drip sensor: It monitors drip flow and alerts the nurse to halt and replenish with a fresh drip, avoiding ingress of air bubbles in the I-V line.

Code-Blue alert: A hospital wide alert, for cardiac and other emergencies when help must be secured from wherever available, within the hospital’s premises.

Patient-nurse intercom: It enables the nurse to talk to the patient and go suitably prepared to the bed side, reducing to and fro trips.

Nurse-call response monitoring: A monitoring system to capture and data log all nurse call activity. Reports highlight delayed response to calls, level of call traffic on a given floor or ward, and intra-day call load on the nurse-station. This feature is implemented on a single PC terminal at the Matron’s or Medical Director’s desk and may, optionally, be linked through the hospital’s main server to the rest of the hospital information system.

SMS alerts: Specific alert calls can be relayed to selected cell-phones including the concerned physician and key hospital staff.

Corridor display modules: Enhance call capture for hospitals having long corridors with one or more bends.

Multi-function handsets: In addition to the nurse-call function, these enable the patient to also conveniently switch lamps, fans, audio and TV from the same handset; and to change the TV channels and sound volume (when integrated with a suitably selected institutional model TV set).

Call transfer facility: Allows night shift duty transfer of calls from any nurse-station to another nurse-station on the same floor. This enables optimal deployment of night shift duty nursing staff.

After commissioning, these systems require virtually no maintenance except to replace any physically damaged module or to upgrade the software/ hardware elements, whenever needed.

Nurse-call system installations are directly implemented by Medisystems engineers and technicians, or by their authorised representatives, working in close co-ordination with the hospital’s electrical consultants and contractors.

Customer support is prompt and monitored through the company’s service centre and its local service representatives.