How a Nurse Call System Works and Why It’s Important?

Nurse call systems are important in helping nurses and caregivers offer the best care to patients by allowing patients to call for help or nurses to request additional assistance in serving patients as the need arises.

Healthcare facilities are implementing nurse call systems as a way to improve patient satisfaction and streamlining workflows to make the best use of time and resources.

How do Nurse Call Systems Work?

Wireless nurse call systems facilitate communication between patients and caregivers. They allow patients to call for assistance as they need it and have their requests dealt with promptly.

1. Call the Nurse

When the patient needs help, they can press a nurse call button or pull a nurse call cord, which triggers the nurse call light in the corridor to light up and generate an alarm. The nurse call lights will show different colors depending on the reason for the emergency call. Both patients and caregivers can initiate a call for help using the call light system.

Aidbell nurse call systems also allow patients to call the nurses through medical pendants, especially if the patients have problems with mobility.

2. Receive the Call from Patients

Once the patient calls for help, the nurse console will display the location of the patient, the call type, the wait time, and the status. With Aidbell Nurse Call System, the nurse can call the patient back to learn more about what the patient needs help with.

The nurse then proceeds to the patient’s room to provide the required assistance and turn off the alarm to indicate that the patient is receiving help. There is a cancel button on the patient station, which allows nurses to turn off the alarm when they arrive and switch off the corridor lights once they finish assisting the patient.

When a nurse arrives to assist a patient and needs additional help, they can press a call button with a ” CODE BLUE ” function. This Code Blue button is designed to summon a doctor or other nurses, indicating the need for urgent, high-level assistance.”

3. Nurse Call System Data Collection & Back-up

Modern wireless nurse call systems can track and log all incidents. They will record the time and reason for a call, the response, the time between the call and the response, and the time spent helping the patient.

Such data is critical for hospital administrators who need to track the ROI of implementing nurse call systems in their organizations.

Wireless nurse call systems with data collection capabilities help create accountability among staff and achieve higher patient satisfaction values.

Aidbell management software of wireless nurse call system can support Data copy and Data back-up from wireless receivers to computers to ensure Data safety. This patent design will help the data storage when the hardware devices are broken. Just need to download the data from the computer to a new wireless receiver and finish the settings within 1 minute.

Why Nurse Call Systems are Important?

Nurse call systems have gone from being good to have in hospitals to becoming a critical element of nurse-patient communications. These systems are important in hospitals for the following reasons:

1. Patient Safety

Nurse call systems allow patients to call nurses when they need their help. They can be the difference between life and death for some patients.

Missed care opportunities could lead to worsening of patient conditions and poorer patient outcomes. However, with nurse call systems, patients can call in to request certain care, report pain, or report accidents such as bathroom falls.

Where nurse call systems are built to detect a patient’s physical movement, nurses can respond to movements such as falls, which helps in keeping the patient safe, or helping them before their condition worsens.

Nursing homes can use nurse call systems to keep monitoring patients throughout the day. Residents can call in when distressed or need help from the bathroom, being helped when in pain. These systems allow them to maintain their independence knowing that help is on the way via pressing a small nurse call button anytime and anywhere. 

2. Improved Patient Satisfaction Levels

When patients receive quick and efficient care, they experience higher satisfaction. Their comfort, relaxation, and happiness levels increase with better services, which also increases the likelihood of better healing outcomes.

Patients also experience less disruption due to the use of wireless nurse call systems in hospitals. Having a quiet environment is critical for the comfort of patients, especially for those whose conditions predispose them to anxiety due to noise and excessive lights.   

In addition to calling nurses, nurse call systems offer additional features such as the ability to control a patient’s environment and entertainment too.

3. Better Workflows and Reduced Interruptions

Nurse call systems are critical for reducing the amount of disturbance and interruptions arising from patient needs. Since patients can discretely call for nurses, the rest of the hospital runs uninterrupted.

Fewer interruptions or overhead alarms also reduce the risk of alarm fatigue where nurses and staff become desensitized to the sound of alarms and their response to different situations is reduced.  

Nurse call systems allow for more efficient nurse allocation. Nurses can receive alerts about a patient’s need and respond immediately about their availability. Therefore, if the nurse is already serving another patient, he or she can respond to the message saying they are unavailable.

The management software of Aidbell nurse call system simply identifies other nurses who are on duty and are available to care for the patient. With this nurse-call solution, workflows become more organized, streamlined, and efficient.

With today’s nurse call systems, nurses get more information, which they use to deliver the needed care. For instance, medical equipment connected to the patient and the nurse call systems can alert nurses of critical conditions such as arrhythmias. The nurse responding to the call will know beforehand what he or she needs when going into the patient’s room to help.

4. Faster Responses during Emergencies

Emergencies are synonymous with hospital settings, but they can lead to tense atmospheres especially when they are uncoordinated. Nurse call systems by helping with workflows help in the management of emergencies and allocation of nurses and caregivers to different stations where they are well equipped to serve.  

Medical devices such as heart monitors connected to the patient and nurse call systems send alerts when something unusual happens. When nurses receive an alert for conditions such as heart problems, they can easily start a code blue and have the responsible team deal with the resuscitation care immediately.

Final Words

Nurse call systems work by facilitating patient-nurse communication. They allow patients to notify nurses and caregivers when they need assistance or are in pain. These systems could also be connected to Bed Pad Alarm, Smoke Detector Alarm and etc to alert nurses of emergencies or deteriorating conditions in patients.

Nurse call systems are important for patient care and for improving workflows and response rates in hospitals and nursing home facilities. Nurses can easily fulfill the needs of their patients without the need for constant back-and-forth movement to the patient’s location to identify their needs.  

Contact us today, and we help you find the best nurse call system for your facility.