IPFusion provides real-time communication, awareness, and control to decrease critical response times.

Healthcare: The Connected Hospital

Healthcare leaders, like their peers in other non-IT industries, are exploring digital transformation to find new ways to connect patients, staff, systems, and devices. The core drivers behind digital transformation are streamlined patient journeys, increased patient and staff satisfaction and improved efficiencies across staff and operational workflows.

IPFusion integrates various medical systems and processes, delivering an inclusive, immediate staff response system powered by policy-enforced workflows.

Nurse call or patient alarm management

Eliminate alarm confusion and reduce clinical response time – nurse call, patient monitors, smart beds, IV pumps, EHRs, monitor alarms and more.

Patient and staff safety

IPFusion’s unique workflow driven methodology reduces human error and enables immediate activation of patient and staff safety precautions – reduce noise levels, decrease critical response times, provide seamless communication across devices, enable rapid response.

Patient flow

IPFusion provides complete control, awareness and safety through the automation and sequencing of common healthcare processes, providing full awareness of location and immediate notification of incident.

Risk management and compliance

IPFusion’s unique workflow engine provides complete control and security of your systems. Ensure compliance, achieve real-time control, and provide complete visibility!

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Fire Response

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Nurse Calling Systems

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Staff Duress

rtls health systems

IPFusion is a real game-changer in long-term care homes and mental health facilities. Real-time location systems (RTLS) for healthcare allow staff to track the movement of all residents and key staff — all incidents, including security incidents, can be identified and isolated in real-time. In the case of emergencies, responders can be directed to the exact place of incidence which saves time, and even, lives.

healthcare automation

IPFusion’s workflows provide critical health information to staff in real-time, enabling faster response times to emergencies and patient needs.

Workflows integrate doors, elevators, lighting, temperature and oxygen supply to create the environment for specific responses. For example, an incoming alarm can trigger the workflow for the efficient passage of a critically ill patient from the ambulance, to ER, through OR and eventually into the ICU.

IPFusion can be installed across the hospital or facility to provide complete control, awareness and security and can also be installed modularly by floor or unit.

case study:

nurse call systems

IPFusion Breathes New Life into Dated Nurse Call System

IPFusion partnered with a leading Canadian hospital to breathe new life into their current nurse call system. Saving them money, decreasing patient response time, reducing noise levels, and enabling communication to various smart devices. Read further to learn how IPFusion enabled like functionality through ageing infrastructure while solving various other challenges in the process.

The hospital’s nurse call system was 30 plus years old and an upgrade was inevitable. The old nurse call system relied on audio alerts and lights installed above each room. A nurse call resulted in an audio alert (alarm like noise) across the entire ward and a light flashing above the appropriate room’s door. This system was extremely loud and inaccurate as the light only identified the room and not the actual bed (number). Precious time was wasted while nurses tried to identify the patient and the level of care required.

The hospital acknowledged the need for a technology overhaul to gain control, reduce patient wait times and provide awareness across wards and the entire facility. IPFusion was asked to present a patient care and technology solution under a tight budget and timeline and with limited impact on patients and staff.

The IPFusion team designed a technology solution which upgraded and transformed the existing nurse call system and propelled it into the 21st century. Alert monitors were added to the nursing station and although the lights were still fixed above doors the information now available included patient room number, time of call and type of call, i.e. emergency. As a bonus the alert was now only audible in the specific area of the patient room.

Huge cost and time saving
No cumbersome and time-consuming system overhaul
Dramatic increase in staff efficiency
No more ward-wide alerts and notification
Fewer patient care disruptions
Dramatic decrease in noise complaints from staff and patients
Complete awareness and control (across the whole ward) on one screen

The nurse call system can now send notifications to any communication device while leveraging existing infrastructure. The calmer environment and quick response times ensure patient and staff satisfaction and one touch call-back enables return messaging and alert acknowledgement in case of emergencies, duress, or incidents.

Increased operational efficiency equals excellent patient care and happy staff … and a more relaxed healing environment.

Challenge

The primary challenge was the age of the system. It was over 30 years old and based on technology that was outdated and difficult to connect to. The IPFusion team was determined to find a solution that allowed the hospital to retain its current infrastructure and save money.

The patient call system relied on audio alerts and lights installed above each patient room. But it wasn’t clear which patient, in which bed, needed the assistance. And, the audio alert would sound through the entire ward, disturbing patients. This caused severe efficiency bottlenecks for the nurses and reduced care for patients. The new system needed to be smarter, more accurate.

Budget limitations. The hospital couldn’t afford to replace its outdated infrastructure, which was over 30 years old.

The IPFusion team designed a solution that would eliminate the ward-wide audio alerts and remove the need for nurses to look for room lights. They will have all the info on one pane of glass or a single dashboard with minimum noise and maximum accuracy. All at a fraction of the cost of full infrastructure replacement.

Our team installed alert monitors in the nursing station, so staff could quickly see and respond to calls—with no impact on the day-to-day hospital operations. IPFusion smartened up the functionality of the aged patient call system. Our team installed alert monitors in the nursing station, so staff could quickly see and respond to calls. IPFusion reconfigured the patient call system and transformed the audio alerts and door lights. The light still displayed above the patient room, but notification to an alert monitor in the nursing station displayed the patient room, time of call, and type of call for all patient calls in that area Now, when a patient called for a nurse, the audio alert would only chime in the specific area of the patient room.

All this was done with no impact on the day-to-day operation of the hospital.

solution

result

The outdated patient call system frustrated staff and patients causing services to flatline. With IPFusion, their existing system had a new lease on life:

A dramatic increase in nursing staff efficiency and productivity
Enhanced patient call response time and patient care
Reduced disruptions to other patients due to audio alerts (fewer noise complaints)
Huge cost and time saving - no need to tear out the existing system and purchase an expensive new one

Contact IPFusion to increase security & improve access control at your facility.