Within the facility, Cabanda Care Rosewood has reduced noisy annunciation and provided the care team with mobile devices and immediately achieved improved response times.  

Robin Christelow, General Manager at Cabanda Care comments, “Our staff identified several improvements they wanted to achieve to further enhance resident care outcomes. Cabanda was focused on reducing alarm noise and associated alarm fatigue that was being experienced by staff, improving staff response times to resident calls and creating a peaceful living environment by reducing alarm noise experienced by residents and their families.  

“The introduction of the Responder nurse call and workflow solution has been incredibly encouraging with significantly improved response times and reduced noise. Rauland supplied mobile handsets to the care team, silenced the annunciators and tailored nurse call workflows to ensure carers received event information just for their residents.” 

A before and after study was conducted and on average there were 271 audible alarms per day. The total alarm noise impacting on residents and the care staff was 20.3 hours a day and was reduced to 3.7 hours after implementation. There was a 31 per cent reduction in the time it took to respond to resident calls, ensuring residents were attended to faster. 

Anecdotally, staff report that it is easier to locate each other with the mobile devices releasing more time to care for residents.  

Cameron Burt, Chief Executive Officer at Rauland Australia comments, “Intuitive mobile technology at the point of care is the future in aged care to improve resident care outcomes. Empowering the care team with mobile devices in the first stage of the project meant communication between residents, families and carers was improved with faster response times and customer-centric service delivery.

“Secondly, the facility removed passive infrared sensors and replaced these with wireless bed/chair mats to reduce false alarms. Response times to fall alerts have significantly dropped with less false alarms.”

“The best practice quiet nurse call environment at Cabanda has shown advanced service delivery, enabling residents to quickly access the services and care they need. This project demonstrates how aged care providers can implement change at the grass roots to improve the lives of residents and support the care team. A stronger foundation for communication and faster carer response via the nurse call system has enabled residents to access care when needed, foster staff accountability and embrace a new model of care,” Mr Burt concluded.

Cabanda provides the full spectrum of care for up to 150 frail aged and younger disabled people with a 52-unit Residential Village comprising 42 Independent Living Units and 10 Long Term Rental Units, as well as Permanent Residential Care, Centre Based Respite, Dementia Unit and Social Support Group.