A common problem often reported and frequently highlighted in the Francis Report relates to unanswered or late responses to patients using nursecall systems.
Although there are no nationally-agreed standards for nursing response times, concerns over this finding have led most hospitals to look carefully at how improvements can be made.
Now nursecall specialist, Static Systems Group (SSG), has launched a new software package to help hospital management teams demonstrate standards of patient care. This is achieved by collating the response times from patient call to staff attendance at the bed side and presenting the information in easily-understood reports.
The Nurse Call Response Software App is compatible with most of SSG’s systems supplied over the last 15 years, including Fusion-IP and Codemlon equipment. The app can be installed on new installations and also be retro-fitted into existing nursecall systems.
Although for sometime it has been a standard requirement to record all events on nursecall systems, this information has traditionally only been available in a text format and not presented in a particularly helpful manner
The new app collects information over user specified periods such as a working day, week or month. The data presented shows the percentage of calls responded to in certain time bands, average response times and number of calls within a period. Reports are displayed in the form of easily-understood pie charts and bar charts, which highlight particular trends, helping to identify peaks and troughs in patient demand and also assess the staffing levels required.
Commenting on the Nurse Call Response Software App, Static Systems Group marketing director, Phil Wade said: “Although for sometime it has been a standard requirement to record all events on nursecall systems, this information has traditionally only been available in a text format and not presented in a particularly helpful manner.
“We believe these new-style reports will be a useful tool for hospital management and staff teams as a way of more easily identifying, reporting and acting on data to continually improve levels of patient care, confidence and performance standards.”