Spotlight on St Bridget’s Leonard Cheshire Home, West Sussex 

St Bridget’s is a friendly place to live and work with high quality care given to residents with Huntington’s Disease, Cerebral Palsy and Brain injuries. Due to the high level of dependency the nurse call system at St Bridget’s plays a huge role for everybody working and living here. 

Marcus is open to new ideas and exploring how digital technology can help improve the lives of his residents and staff. The Call System has become a central part of this policy. 

D – What Call system have you installed?
M –  We originally had an Intercall 600 system which we found very reliable, it never let us down and did the majority of what we needed it to. However, we wanted a call system that could go further and integrate with the growing number of other digital devices, yet we didn’t want a system that was too intrusive. We researched many and opted for Intercall Touch Series. 

D – Has the Call System delivered what you wanted? 

M- Yes it has, in fact it’s gone so much further than I ever imagined. I was originally excited about the staff using the Care Cards, to provide data on which staff attend calls. Yet this has led onto the same cards being used to open many of our sensitive doors and drugs cupboards. But what’s really blown me away is the programmability of this system. 

D – Can you give us any examples? 

M – We have residents with complex needs that we occasionally need to keep a very close eye on. We’re able to set hourly scheduled calls on the call system to remind staff to go & check on the resident in a particular room, it details in our call log who attended and how long they stayed. This simple facility really has provided reassurance to everyone that when circumstances change for a resident we can respond.  

D – Anything else? 

M – Yes, I wanted staff to carry out nightly checks, I’ve been able to configure the call system, so staff must check in at certain points  and zones at certain times. In the morning I check the log which reassures me that my staff are on the ball even when I’m not there. 

D – Has the call system solved any real issues for you? 

M – Yes, like many care facilities we’re very busy but always looking to provide the best level of care we can but don’t want to be too intrusive. Examples like residents going to the toilet are hard to manage, staff can easily be distracted or pulled away. I can rest easy in the knowledge that if any of my residents are in the toilet for longer than 20 minutes the call system will notify my staff to go and check they’re OK.  

D – Do you use the call logging System? 

M – Yes, we have the cloud interface. I can’t tell you how much information we gain from this. We’re able to record all the staff interactions and response times. Unexpectedly this nurse call data is assisting with how we monitor the amount of time carers spend in certain rooms, this has an impact on billing and rota creation.   

D – Do you have any advice you’d like to give to others? 

M – We originally had the system installed by a local company; they were very helpful initially and got the system up and running. However, it wasn’t until I spoke to Intercall directly that so many possibilities were teased out. They transformed the system again, customizing it with the sounds & colours that work for us; calls smoothly escalate (almost like traffic lights), so at a glance anywhere in the home, you know the status of the call system.  My advice is to talk to Intercall.  

D – What would you like for the future? 

M – My team regularly come to me with suggestions how we can make improvements, many golden ideas have started this way. Our latest idea is to integrate Alexa as best we can with our digital technology.