Timmins hospital looks for new nurse call bell system

TIMMINS, Ont. – The Timmins and District Hospital is in the market for a new nurse call bell system. The hospital opened in 1993 and officials say parts for the current nurse call bell system are obsolete. Jason Laneville (pictured), executive director of the Timmins and District Hospital Foundation, said technology has advanced quite a bit in 30 years.

“Look at your cellphone for example – who has a five-year-old cellphone? Not many people do,” said Laneville.

He said the money raised through the last six months of online 50/50 draws will help pay for the new $1.2 million upgrade.

“Typically, every month we have a project that we work towards and this particular project, the nurse call bell system, is a huge system – hospital-wide,” he said.

Nursing officials said to maintain patient safety, it’s time to invest in a more effective tool that will help them care for patients.

“A new nurse call system now can integrate wirelessly with new beds,” said Lia Fontana, director of clinical services for the Timmins and District Hospital. “Most of our beds are new and have the ability to connect wirelessly to devices like nurse call bell systems.”

Fontana said the foundation will start by buying a base model that will connect to cellphones carried by nurses and then new features can be added when more money is raised.

“It will tell us things like the brakes on the bed is off so if a patient were to try and get up that’s a risk for falling,” said Fontana. “Or it’ll tell us if the bed rails are down, and we can go adjust accordingly. It will tell us if a patient is trying to exit a bed and they shouldn’t be and … so we’re alerted right away, and we can get there to intervene.”

Fontana expects the hospital and the foundation to make a decision this month on which system to buy. She’s hoping it will be installed sometime this year.