“They just don’t make them like they used to” is a phrase that’s often bandied about when referring to the differences between older, more solidly built structures and those that deploy more modern materials.
That could be good or bad, depending on what your preference is, or what you’re hoping to accomplish with a project. Sometimes the old way can present issues that newer construction does not, as was the case for the Or Yom nursing home in Turkey, which was installing an Elpas Real Time Location System (RTLS) for the protection of residents and staff.
Spread out over 11 floors in two buildings, integrator Sigmamed was confronted with two very different structures. The old building boasted walls that were more than 2.5 feet thick and featured a layout with shared bathrooms and a central dining hall. The newer structure, meanwhile, offered individual rooms with en suite lavatories. There was also a separate Alzheimer’s unit.
Fortunately, Sigmamed was able to easily configure the Elpas system so that it would work in the older building as well as the more modern one. What it came down to was the use and positioning of infrared (IR), low-frequency (LF) or radio-frequency (RF) readers, depending upon the location.
By working within the confines of the existing architecture, the integrator was still able to deploy the RTLS so it best served residents and staff — no matter where they were within the nursing home. In the older section, IR readers were strategically installed in each room, while a single LF reader was positioned outside the shared bathrooms. An RF reader located in the center of the dining hall provided coverage for an area where residents gathered, so if an alarm occurred here, staff would be able to easily find the location and respond.
Those residents living in the newer building were covered by LF readers positioned at the entrances within the living space, allowing staff to pinpoint a distress call coming from the living space or the adjoining bathroom. All the information came back to three nurse’s stations or onto their mobile phones.
Using a single system with accommodations made for the buildings themselves, staff at Or Yom was able to monitor calls from residents as well as locate fellow nurses, doctors and caregivers or respond to Code Blue calls through the use of active ID bags.
With the aging infrastructure that makes up most healthcare, education and even corporate settings, the likelihood of working with multiple structures from different eras and featuring diverse materials keeps growing. It’s good to know that important systems such as real-time location are also adaptable, so with some careful planning, coverage can be comprehensive and effective.
To read the full case study on the Elpas Real Time Location System installation system at Or Yom, please visit tycosecurityproducts.com
