HealthCarion and Ekahau Bring Safety and Mobility to Seniors at a German Nursing Home With a WLAN Nurse-Call System

RESTON, Virginia, July 3, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --

HealthCarion GmbH, a provider of software solutions for nursing homes and hospitals, has installed the HealthCarion PLG (Patient Location Guard) software-based nurse-call system in Désirée House at the D&D GmbH's senior residence and nursing home. Ekahau, the market leader in real-time locating systems (RTLS), supplied the Wi-Fi Tags for patents and staff, as well as the WLAN locating system. Whenever a dangerous situation arises, residents of the home can wirelessly call for help and the solution can also provide the patients present location.

     (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20120504/EkahauLogo )

The nurse-call system, which was developed by HealthCarion, was installed and integrated into the existing information systems in just two weeks' time. The nursing home's residents wear Ekahau wristband tags that enable them to call for help from any location in the event of an emergency or even if they have fallen to the floor. Ekahau Wi-Fi Pagers automatically notify caregivers about the resident's exact location so that assistance can be provided quickly.

HealthCarion's nurse-call system quickly and simply confirms the receipt of the alarm on the caregivers mobile device. A built-in module analyzes the alarms and the calls in order to optimize the care process and if required, provides process verification. The patient wandering protection feature monitors people in high-risk groups, for example patients suffering from dementia. Other functions such as staff assistance calls, technical alarms or anti-theft (e.g. for wheelchairs) alarms are also available without additional installation labor. These features are simply turned on by activating those functions inside the software.

The solution complies with all legal guidelines and the recommendations stipulated by German DIN VDE 0834 standards without relying on legacy cable-connected technologies.

"The nurse-call system delivered by HealthCarion GmbH was installed and put into operation very quickly and without the need for any major construction," said Mrs. Maffert, Managing Director at Désirée. "The option to deploy wandering patient protection and staff-assistance calls in the existing system was one of the main reasons why we opted for this solution"

"The nurse-call system developed by HealthCarion GmbH provides us with a high degree of security because our residents no longer need to go to stationary call buttons in order to call for help. Patients can request assistance from anywhere in the building said, Mrs. Paul, Director of Care at Désirée. "We receive each call along with the current position of the resident who is calling for assitance, so that we can get to that patient as quickly as possible. Ekahau Wi-Fi Pagers are used to notify our staff about triggered calls."

The solution consists of three key components:

• The HealthCarion PLG (Patient Location Guard) nurse-call system, which leverages the WLAN-based location of each resident (more information is available at http://www.healthcarion.de);
• Standard WLAN access points. The system from Zyxel; (more information is available at http://www.zyxel.com)  covers the entire facility and can be used  for other applications such as telephony and Internet access for patents;
• Ekahau Wi-Fi Tags for patients and staff member (T301W and T301BD tags) as well as the Ekahau RTLS Controller which produces location and status information on all of  the tags in the facility (more information is available at http://www.ekahau.com).

About HealthCarion:

Headquartered in Berlin, HealthCarion GmbH develops and distributes leading software solutions for the healthcare industry. The spectrum of solutions available from HealthCarion GmbH ranges from the HealthCarion Patient Location Guard security and communications solution to the HealthCarion Patient Flow Management and process-guidance system for Operating Rooms as well as solutions Emergency Departments and Diagnostics Units in acute care horpitals.

All software solutions from HealthCarion GmbH rely on state of the art technologies to determine the locations of individuals within buildings, e.g. WLAN lZ\RTLS, RFID and ultrasound locating technologies. HealthCarion GmbH's solution platform allows customers to simultaneously deploy and use a broad range of locating technologies at each client site. This enables the clients to deploy the optimal locating technology for every application.

Mobile applications, such as ones developed for the iPhone and a variety of dashboards are available to communicate relevant information to staff members.

A high-performance communications server is available for integration into existing telecommunication systems, so that all HealthCarion software solutions can be integrated into existing telephone systems.

For further information, please visit our homepage: http://www.healthcarion.de.

About Ekahau Inc.

Ekahau Inc. is the industry leader in providing Wi-Fi-based RTLS solutions. Ekahau's customers, including several Fortune 500 companies worldwide, are realizing the benefits of Wi-Fi based location services and innovative Wi-Fi network planning and optimization tools. Ekahau's solutions are being used in more than 300 hospitals around the world, as well as by manufacturing, retail and industrial companies, government agencies and the military. Ekahau partners include wireless software developers, leading system integrators and international OEM partners, who develop and market wireless enterprise applications. Ekahau is a U.S.-based corporation, with headquarters in Reston, VA, and other offices in Saratoga, CA; Helsinki, Finland; Tokyo; and Hong Kong. For more information about Ekahau, please visit http://www.ekahau.com.

SOURCE Ekahau Inc.