Assisted Living
The same infrastructure described in the general PRODUCT section, using Main and Local relays, the paging system, and the computer system and software, is used as well in Assisted Living facilities. Facilities offering a combination of Independent and Assisted Living care can simply use different Bosch transmitters in the residents' rooms or apartments offering different levels of care.
Although not required by the Ministry of Health, most facilities install pull cords in resident rooms and common areas. Some facilities supplement these with a portable call button so that residents have full coverage everywhere in their rooms and throughout the entire facility.
BOSCH bathroom and common area call button/pull cords
As for the transmitters installed in the residents’ bathrooms or in common areas, whenever the RED button is pressed or the pull cord is activated, a Call for Help alarm will be transmitted to the computer screen and to the pagers. It will indicate both the name of the resident and room or apartment number, and that it is a Call for Help.
Since there is no wiring involved, these could easily be added in future, if required. It is something that your maintenance sfaff could install and thus save on installation.
Portable wrist or neck call buttons for coverage everywhere
Mobility and protection for your residents
– in their suites and everywhere else
Residents wearing these portable wrist or necklace call buttons will be able to call for help in their suites and anywhere in a facility, a hallway, stairwell, elevator, a common area such as the library, exercise room, dining room or their parking area, and potentially the courtyard. The Main NC4 relay identifies the relay that received the strongest signal and transmits it on to the pagers to help pinpoint the location of the resident requiring assistance.
Responding to alarms in facilities with both Independent and Assisted Living
The Bosch emergency call system offers full flexibility when determining who will respond to Calls for Help on a 24/7 basis. Alarms from the Independent Living floors can be directed to different pagers than those from the Assisted Living floors, with escalation to each other if not responded to in a timely manner. This programming change can be easily changed online by eCall ONTARIO. You could select that all staff respond to all alarms initially, when opening a new facility, when you have limited staff particularly on the night shift. The Administrator or Executive Director can also be notified via email if the response times exceed the criteria he/she has set.
Buy for today and not next year - spread expenses to match revenue
New Assisted Living facilities can take anywhere from one to up to three years to fill up. If all the equipment in the rooms is installed when the facility opens, it could mean that the equipment a new resident gets when he moves in is already off warranty. New facilties can take advantage of the BOSCH wireless transmitters and only order what they need when they open. Since the pull cords and call buttons are all wireless the maintenance staff can install them as residents move in and further save on labour. Some of our customers, when opening, order only 25% to 30% of the transmitters that they will require once they are completly full. They then place on-going orders as their revenue increases.
Moving residents from Independent to Assisted Living
In facilities offering both Independent and Assisted Living care, the decision must be made at some point whether a facility can meet the needs of certain residents on an Independent Living floor, or whether they should be moved to an Assisted Living floor. A recent example can best show the benefits of a BOSCH wireless system. A facility offering both Independent Living and Assisted Living had a resident who had a tendency to wander out of his apartment at night. Both the resident and her children resisted the recommendation to move her to the Assisted Living floor. For the children the extra cost was the main factor.
We recommended to the facility that they install a wireless door contact. We shipped one to the facility and the maintenance staff installed it on the resident's apartment door while we programmed, using remote access, a special monitoring time from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. for that particular door. Now, when the resident opened her door during that time period, the staff received the message "Mary Smith apartment 203 wandering alarm" on their pagers. The nursing staff then had a meeting with the children and used the management reports showing the wandering alarms generated by their mother. The children agreed to move her to the Assisted Living floor the staff could better respond to her nightly wandering habit. Then the maintenance staff moved the wireless door contact to her new room on the Assisted Living floor to keep on monitoring her wandering habit.
This is a perfect example of the flexibility and cost effectiveness of the Bosch wireless system. For less than $200, a facility solved their wandering resident problem. The alternative could have required the installation of a complete wandering system at a significantly higher cost or elicited the recommendation that the resident move to another facility offering dementia care.