1 Background

1.1 The Nursing Care Investment Strategy Programme Board has commissioned 10 nursing homes to be built in Hampshire, to provide 500 beds aimed at improving the speed at which NHS patients can be returned to the community.

1.2 Resident Monitoring for Nursing homes will help nursing staff provide the highest level of care and safety to vulnerable residents and will assist in meeting the requirements of Clinical Governance Standards as prescribed by The Care Homes Regulations 2001 and the Care Standards Act 2000.

1.3 Social Services are committed to improving service quality and need to keep up to date with the Government's requirements for information management. It is the intention that these homes will be managed with the assistance of highly-functional technical systems that maximise operational efficiency and provide appropriate management functions and reports.

1.4 The well-being of the residents is paramount. In addition to conventional nurse call systems, the Council wishes to be able to monitor the well-being of residents so that any need for nursing intervention can be recognised as early as possible. Such monitoring must be effective, unobtrusive and tailored to the individual user.

1.5 The facilities provided by these alarms and monitors do not replace the provision of, or supervision by, qualified nursing staff.

1.6 These decisions support three of the Aims of the Corporate Strategy: Aim 1 (Maximising Life Opportunities by assisting timely delivery of caring services); Aim 5 (Improving Services) by improving the productivity of staff; and Aim 6 (Developing Councillors and Staff by enabling staff with the appropriate systems and resources in delivering appropriate services.

2.0 Procured System Requirements Summary

2.1 Resident Activity Monitoring

2.1.1 The system must continuously monitor the activity of residents, using wireless integrated personal devices so that this can be carried out anywhere within the nursing home (or garden). The system must raise automatic alerts when certain criteria relating to resident activity are met, including:

· Fall detection

· Unusual activity - i.e. changes to the expected activity of a resident, including long periods of inactivity, changes to resident well being (e.g. hypothermia).

2.1.2 It must be possible to configure the resident monitoring devices to suit individual resident needs and monitoring requirements. The system must raise an alert when a resident removes a personal monitoring device.

2.1.3 It must be possible for nurses, carers, or managers to view up to date and historic charts of resident activity for the purposes of clinical analysis. The system should also allow nurses and managers to access and compare information about resident activity between the homes for clinical governance purposes.

2.2 Nurse Call and Alarm Management

2.2.1 The system must have wireless integrated nurse call and resident monitoring devices, for example so that one set of pagers or devices can be used for resident monitoring as well as nurse call. In all instances, alarms must be sent to a central location within the home as well as to staff, e.g. via pagers or mobile phones.

2.2.2 The system must tell the receiving person (nurse or care staff) which resident the alarm is for, the residents location and the reason for the alarm.

2.2.3 Nurses should not be able to remotely cancel or turn off an alert/alarm - i.e. it should only be possible to cancel an alarm at its source.

2.2.4 In order to maintain the amenity of the homes, the system should not use call/alert lights outside resident's doors.

2.3 Manual Alarms

2.3.1 Not all residents will require activity monitoring. For those not requiring activity monitoring, the system should include wireless fixed devices throughout the home, that enable residents to manually alert staff e.g. using `Pear Push' devices and wall mounted devices. Fixed device locations will include bathrooms, bedrooms, lounges and other common areas such as assisted toilets and corridors

2.3.2 These devices should respond with an audible signal when the resident has made a successful call for help - especially for bathroom ceiling mounted pull cords.

2.4 Other Alarms

2.4.1 The system must provide flood detection alarms, for either all rooms or for assessed needs placement. These alarms should be wireless. If the system does not provide for flood detection, it should be possible to integrate flood detection alarms with the chosen system.

2.5 Equalities

The proposal has been assessed to be in accord with requirements of the Equality Standard for Local Government and the Corporate Equalities Plan and Race Scheme.

3 Indicative Timescales

Work Item: Complete by:

Procurement End October 04

Implementation Early December 04

Training December / January 05

Live Use / First Homes Open January 05

4 Indicative Financial Implications

4.1 Initial cost estimates of the equipment and software are estimated at £350,000 plus annual maintenance/ licences. The costs of implementation are excluded from this procurement and will be conducted through IT Services Department.

4.2 External Purchase Cost - Software and Hardware £350,000

External support over 4 years 41,000

IT Services procurement 30,000

IT Services IT2000 Setup 20,000

IT Services IT2000 annual costs - 4 years 50,000

Total £491,000

4.3 Budget will need to be made available from departmental budgets, capital allocation and request made to the Enhance Programme Board with respect to additional funding.

5 Benefits

5.1 Benefits for this product are not defined in financial terms but in the delivery of the capability to meet the various regulatory and functional needs of this new service, as well as adding to the perception that Hampshire should offer the best available facilities and support for residents in its care.

6 Next steps

6.1 Complete procurement process

6.2 Commence Implementation Stage

7 Other options considered and rejected

7.1 Separated nurse call and monitoring systems, as well nurse call only

8 Recommendation

That agreement be given, subject to budget availability, to procure an appropriate Nurse Call and Resident Monitoring system for Nursing Homes at an estimated cost of £350,000 plus annual support and licence fees over four years. The total project cost including the ongoing IT Services support costs are expected to be £491,000.