When the outside temperature rises, it’s not only an inconvenient situation. Heat waves can be deadly to older and more vulnerable residents.
This lesson was driven home starkly in the aftermath of Hurricane Irma in Florida, where nine residents died after losing power in their nursing community.
It doesn’t take a catastrophic hurricane to make heat a deadly problem for seniors. Nearly 400 Americans die from heat waves each year. “Most of them are elderly people who often don’t realize when they are overheating and in danger.” (agingcare.com)
This is an awesome responsibility that falls on senior communities, to prevent and respond to a potential temperature increase, even if the resident doesn’t realize the danger or severity of the situation.
RCare’s temperature sensors
Nurse Call Systems have come a long way in the past few decades. Caregiving staff are expected to do far more than simply respond to button and pull cord alerts. They need to be aware if a resident is in a dangerous environment, without the resident having to do anything. The technology needs to enable better, faster, and more predictive care.
That’s why RCare’s nurse call systems have gone above and beyond, to integrate passive environmental sensors, such as temperature and flood detecting sensors. RCare’s temperature devices will detect when temperatures are rising and start sending out alerts to designated caregiving team members. RCare allows for a quick intervention, before the situation becomes a crisis.
Passive sensors are an important part of a complete nurse call system. RCare is the provider of advanced wireless nurse call systems for senior communities across the senior care continuum. With the integration of temperature sensors, water sensors, and other environmental sensors, RCare provides care staff with the extra tools they need to keep seniors safe, even if the resident never pressed a button.
Advanced nurse call systems such as RCare’s standard advanced nurse call system offerings are complex and feature-rich. Typical installations may be in large facilities that have hundreds of beds, a large staff and many receivers and transmitters collecting information throughout the facility. (Think nurse stations, nurse call buttons, pull-cords, door sensors, etc.) The system may include dozens of mobile devices carried by caregiving staff and administration. Managing all these devices and their communications with one another requires an enterprise-class computer server. But along with this robust technology comes a price tag that isn’t affordable for small campuses. So, they simply don’t have access to the best advanced nurse call options available to other communities.
The BCube nurse stations function like the nurse stations of the larger cube products, reporting sensor information, alert statuses and ensuring caregiver accountability. And the BCube provides the important accountability capabilities of the larger systems, including analytics, reporting and the RPhone “I Got It” caregiving accountability tool.
To celebrate our “Everyone’s a Winner with RCare” campaign, we have big giveaways at the booth. Stop by Booth 1310 to pick up your free Bluetooth fidget spinner. No, they are not JUST for the kids, take a look at this 
Be sure to check out our all new GeoPendant. This pendant was designed to provide residents with the flexibility and freedom to move safely around the community. Caregiving staff can define individual “safe zones”, and receive discreet alert notifications if a resident moves outside of their custom safe zone. It also serves as a push-button PERS. Location tracking lets caregivers know where the help is needed. Perfect for mixed communities, the GeoPendant is small, sleek, wireless and attractive, and it’s fully integrated with RCare’s nurse call systems.
This got us thinking, and we realized that independence is one of the foundations that underlies everything we do. More independence for residents. More independence for caregivers. More independence for administrators.
It’s why we created the GeoPendant. We know some residents need extra help being safe, but would like it to come without embarrassing alarms and bells. And what about those residents that don’t need those safety limits? How could we create something that could be customized, individually for each resident? The GeoPendant is a sleek push-button pendant, and it’s something more too. With the GeoPendant, caregiving staff can define safe zones for the residents that need them. That means, everyone can just go about their day. But if certain residents move outside their defined safe zone, care staff will be notified, and provided with the senior’s location, so they can offer assistance as needed.
Later this month, broaden your perspective and expand your thinking at the 
