SSG has designed, installed and commissioned a full end-to-end open protocol IP nurse call system for Spire Nottingham Hospital, which is owned and operated by Spire Healthcare, one of the UK’s leading independent hospital groups.
Spire Nottingham Hospital has been purpose-built with future technology in mind. The hospital offers a range of clinical specialties, including complex Cardiology, Orthopaedics, Ophthalmology, General Surgery, Gynaecology, Urology and Cosmetic Surgery. Routine and complex procedures for adults and children are undertaken at the hospital.
The hospital has 42 private en-suite rooms, 11 day-case beds, 4 theatres including a hybrid theatre, an Endoscopy Suite, on-site MRI, CT, X-ray, Ultrasound and Mammography, Physiotherapy and Pharmacy. Spire Nottingham Hospital is rated ‘outstanding’ by the Care Quality Commission.
Two years prior to work starting on the site, Static Systems Group was invited by Spire Healthcare to present the very latest in nurse call solutions and associated technologies and was then tasked with developing the project’s scope of work, generating drawings and writing the specification – all prior to the contract being put out to tender.
Static Systems was subsequently successful in the tender process and was appointed to design, install and commission a solution which would meet Spire Healthcare’s specific requirements. These included the flexibility to add to the nurse call system either at the time of design or post installation, automatic nurse presence, two-way Speech, VoIP integration, catering call and a minimum system life cycle of 20 – 25 years.
Matt Thompson, Senior Account Manager at Static Systems, comments: “Having been involved in scoping the project two years prior to work commencing on site, we had a very clear understanding of Spire Healthcare’s requirements. Our project team held a number of meetings with the client team regarding the LAN set up and how this would communicate with their own LAN. We also held discussions around two-way speech and how this could be linked to the hospital’s VoIP systems.”
The chosen solution for Spire Nottingham Hospital was Static Systems’ full end-to-end open protocol IP Ultima™ solution. Ultima is cost-effective, future-proof and specially designed for multi-disciplined, ward and site-wide communication. It works seamlessly with Static Systems’ Fusion Healthcare Platform to offer an extensive range of advanced facilities to assist with task management and promote patient well-being.
Ultima can be set up on clients’ networks, however in this instance Static Systems designed and installed an independent network for the nurse call system and bridged across to Spire Healthcare’s LAN network. This avoided the need to install an additional network around the hospital simply to connect the 13 nurse call systems together. It also allows Static Systems to output nurse call data – such as call logs, onto the hospital’s own computers.
Some of the main features that Ultima is enabling at Spire Nottingham include Patient Call, Bathroom Call, Staff Call, Cardiac Call, Catering Call, Staff Attack, Bed Exit Alarm, Bed Light Control, Automated Nurse Presence, VoIP Two-way Speech, Call Logging with the facility to log all calls and resetting against a time and date (allowing senior staff members to investigate the system and report back on nurse call activations), Call Transfer across all the hospital’s nurse call systems (allowing the transfer of calls between departments and wards) and VoIP Phone System Integration.
Matt Thompson concludes: “Spire Nottingham is a prestigious project and we were delighted to have played a key role in designing and installing its nurse call system. As we were involved at such an early stage in the project, we were ideally placed to design a solution which would not only meet Spire Healthcare’s immediate requirements, but which would also provide a future-proof system that can be adapted to incorporate and integrate with new healthcare communications technologies as and when these come to market. The project was completed ahead of schedule, the installation process ran smoothly, and the system is performing very well.”