Cincinnati Children's Establishes New Nurse Call System
CINCINNATI -- Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center has implemented a new nurse call system, COMposer™, that reduces the time it takes for nurses to respond to patient calls, improving patient care and staff efficiency.
When children and their families need a nurse and press their call buttons, their nurses can be located wherever they are in patient care areas of the hospital. The system, which has been installed throughout the hospital, is also used to provide information about the status of patients on nursing units. If monitoring equipment begins to alarm, for example, the system triggers an immediate call to the nurse.
"The nurse call system helps assure families that their children are safe and that they are being monitored – even if a nurse is not in the room," says Pat Pilcher, RN, a senior clinical director at Cincinnati Children's who was involved in the planning and implementation of COMposer.
COMposer, manufactured by Hill-Rom", is actually a comprehensive communication and information management system designed to help nurses deliver the best possible care while saving them time and effort. Components of the system include a master station, room stations and locator badges.
Nurses can receive and place calls from either the master station or a room station. They can receive calls from patients, visitors and staff members and place calls to patients, staff members or specific locations.
When nurses receive patient calls, the master station tells who is calling. Since COMposer is able to categorize calls, emergency calls take precedence. Added flexibility comes from stations located in every patient room and various other locations throughout patient-care areas. Staff members can use these stations to call either the master station or staff members who may be located in patient rooms.
Perhaps the most important feature of the system is the capability to locate specific staff members, who wear locator badges wherever they go. Locator badges send a silent signal to receivers built into each room station and mounted in other areas as needed. Staff location is displayed on a computer screen at the master nurse station.
"Families tell us they like being able to see how easily nurses can be located," says Pilcher. "Composer is a real asset in providing family centered care."
Contact Information
Jim Feuer,
jim.feuer@chmcc.org, 513-636-4656
