As the COVID-19 pandemic escalated during March, Everynet kicked off an initiative to support the Spanish healthcare system leveraging its latest secure wireless data technology, LoRaWAN®, which Everynet had already deployed in Madrid and Barcelona as part of a national network build-out.
Working closely with local Spanish service provider Redexia, Everynet took the lead on the project and gathered additional support from technology partners Abeeway, Semtech, and myDevices to provide temporary Hospital facilities with nurse-call buttons for free, enabling patients to be able to notify medical staff in case of urgent need.
Within this consortium of technology partners, Everynet provided the core network infrastructure and operations, Semtech owned the IP of the underlying LoRa Technology, Abeeway provided the long-battery-life physical devices (Micro Trackers). Finally, myDevices IoT software platform enabled the nurse-call button alerts, which collected and presented the data to healthcare professionals in a clear dashboard. Redexia played a vital role in coordinating the integration and deployment of this valuable system into the hands of healthcare facilities.
Together these technology pioneers pooled their resources to provide hospitals Bellvitge, San Pau, Parc Taulí, Germans Trias i Pujol and Del Mar in Barcelona, with this important nurse-call solution, for free.
In total, nurse-call buttons were installed directly in each of 750 hospital beds so that patients can notify an emergency at any time. The first feedback from staff is very positive. Considering the devices long battery life, the quick deployment and the long-lasting service life, health structures will not need to worry about maintenance or management of the service, so that doctors and nurses can focus on what matters most delivering care and assistance to those in need.
Abeeway devices were perfect for the purpose, providing a comfortably actionable button, easy to clean (waterproof) and compact. The button also embeds a Bluetooth scanner which can recognize the bed or surrounding equipment for easy location by hospital personnel, as well as temperature sensor. It will also enable contact tracing and physical distancing features leveraging the integrated 80dBa speaker.
“Improving healthcare facilities operations for patients and staff is critical in an effective fight against the spread of Covid-19. With Abeeway devices communicating through LoRaWAN, nurses get real-time information about a patient call for a nurse and the positioning of the patient bed. This enhances overall patient safety and medical staff efficiency and allows to save lives” says Olivier Hersent, CEO et Actility, Abeeway’s mother company.
The listed health structures have been using the service for a number of weeks, while Everynet and Redexia continue to work with other hospitals on a national level for the implementation of the infrastructure needed and the deployment of further solutions on the same data network, such as reporting on the compliance of hand sanitation, and monitoring the cold-chain delivery of samples and future vaccines. See these examples here: https://covid.everynet.com/madrid
“The unprecedented and rapid spread of the coronavirus has created a strain in the healthcare field with the immediate need to expand hospital capacity. myDevices is pleased to contribute to this cause, alongside our partners, by providing the LoRa-enabled technology to empower the solution,” said Kevin Bromber, CEO & Founder of myDevices. “The Nurse-Call system effectively alerts medical staff when patients require assistance, essential in preserving patient lives, and the safety of the healthcare staff.”
myDevices empowers partners to provide a wide range of IoT plug-and-play solutions such as the nurse-call system. The IoT platform put in place is seamlessly integrated to work with the other partners’ LoRa-enabled devices and networks, allowing quick deployment of COVID-19 critical solutions.
“We are honored and humbled that we could provide real help in such trying times and we hope our contribution will alleviate some of the burden on overloaded medical staff. We believe that our initiative to deliver our network for free, together with the strong ecosystem of partners that we built together with Redexia, can make a difference.” Says Lawrence Latham, CEO of Everynet.
“Semtech is honored to collectively work with other companies to not only provide better working conditions for medical staff, but to also help the community during the pandemic,” said Marc Pegulu, Vice President of IoT in Semtech’s Wireless and Sensing Products Group.