One night, a 90-year-old woman with dementia wandered out of her room at a long-term care facility in South Carolina. No one noticed her missing for seven hours. The next day, they found her body. Worse, the woman had been attacked by alligators. That didn’t have to happen.
According to a 2022 research study by The Lancet, approximately 50 million people live with dementia worldwide, and it’s projected to increase to 152 million by 2050.
“Our ageing population has increased dramatically,” said Julien Bertheuil, Managing Director EMEA, Spectralink Corporation. “And that has dramatically increased the cost of care, putting extraordinary demands on healthcare and nursing homes,” he said.
Dementia care requires a combination of supportive therapies. And freedom of movement is one of the most important. It helps the patient mentally and physically. Care facilities are increasingly challenged to meet demands like this.
Tools For Care, With Compassion
Cicero Zorggroep, a healthcare provider in the Netherlands, supports people with care requirements to live more independent lives. Today, they use unified communications tools to achieve that.
The company wanted to provide patients with freedom of movement while keeping dementia patients safe from the dangers of “wandering behaviour.”
But, until recently, patients at risk were prevented from wandering by keeping doors secured at the Cicero care facility. Staff were unaware when patients suddenly started moving in their rooms or required immediate attention. So, Cicero adopted Spectralink’s easy-to-use handsets to handle these challenges.
For example, with Spectralink’s wireless handsets, Cicero care staff today receive notifications of a patient’s movement and can instantly call the patient to determine if there’s a problem.
An application from De Heer Medicom supports the handset, which provides fast and efficient patient monitoring.
The solution also increases freedom of movement by defining areas where patients can wander safely without staff notifications or interruptions.
“Nurses, doctors and caregivers must assist patients with improved workflows and immediate communications between staff members,” Bertheuil explained. “They need an unobtrusive device that receives alarms and alerts and emergency calls from patients,” he said.
Patients Are Safer with Spectralink’s Wireless Handsets
Spectralink provides a comprehensive solution. It includes:
- Clear voice quality
- Voice, text, and alerts through high-impedance walls like elevators
- Hand’s free use. Devices fit into a scrub pocket
- Waterproofed protection for disinfectant cleaning
- Access to facility information from anywhere
- HIPAA-compliant messaging
- Integration with healthcare applications such as EHR/EMR, Nurse Call, Patient Monitoring, Secure Messaging, Clinical Safety, and RTLS
- Robust native Wi-Fi extends up to 100 metres beyond the facility
- Android compatibility
- Works with the Spectralink suite, its healthcare software, MDM solutions and fire alarm systems
- A ‘hot-swappable’ battery- reduces three phones to one
- An alarm button
Spectralink also offers AMIE, a centralised network management platform. It allows users to view issues on shared devices to identify and resolve them quickly.
Our seniors deserve safe environments supported by professional caregivers who offer compassion and attention. The right tools and technologies will fulfil that mission. It’s time to contact Spectralink.
Click here for more information about Spectralink’s long-term healthcare solutions.
