The Brief

In a climate of declining budgets and an aging population, Nexus Care approached Spindogs to develop an app that provides an innovative and high-quality solution to ease the pressure of under resourced care homes. The Nexus Care Solution app needed to be a powerful messaging platform that delivers critical alarms and messaging for carers.

Historically, patient alerts have been managed in a suboptimal way. Many care homes use wallboard buzzers that sound and flash when a resident raises the alarm, creating a noisy and disruptive environment for both staff and patients. A member of staff has to man the wallboard buzzer at all times and, when alerted, visit the site and carry out an assessment of needs before returning back to site for equipment and staff support.

A step-up from this is the pager system, but year-by-year this technology is also becoming outdated and obsolete. With an ailing or out-of-date nurse call system, a care facility can run into a variety of problems, from delays in care to confusion about how the needs of the patient align with the role of the carer.

Nexus Care had a vision for a smartphone app which offers a real alternative to pagers without the need to replace the current system. A smartphone app gives staff the flexibility to move freely throughout the care home whilst remaining accessible to all residents. This can only result in improved efficiency.

Moving to an app-based nurse call system would have huge advantages in terms of improving the quality of patient care and strengthening the nurse-patient relationship through effective communication.

The Solution

 With that in mind, Nexus Care were looking for a partner to collaborate with who could bring to the table the various different skill sets the app development would require. After they approached us with the initial concept, we constructed a technical blueprint following just three face-to-face meetings and several conference calls.

From concept to design, our Development Team were an integral part of the project. We began working on the development of Nexus Care Solution in June 2017. As they had already sold the product to thirty care sites before the project began, we needed a relatively swift turnaround on version one and we successfully launched the app to all thirty sites six months later.

Over the course of these six months, we created a solution which complements and enhances the current nursecall infrastructure without the need to rip-out and replace existing equipment. Predominantly, the app decreases response times to resident alerts, resulting in a better level of care.

The app allows management to report on all staff performance and manage staffing levels in terms of response time and how many calls each staff member receives. With its in-built patient reporting software, Nexus Care can also provide full transparency to relatives in regards to patient care levels.

App Features

• Individual staff log ons
• Nurse call alerts
• Staff presence
• Zoning of alerts
• Reporting
• Future roofing

The Results

The app has been widely adopted by clients, which is an achievement for a new concept in the marketplace. Nexus Care have sold it into five of the top twenty care home groups in the UK and users have reported that it is very easy and simple to use. There are other third-party integration products available on the market that offer a similar solution, but these are reportedly not as reliable or user-friendly as the app Spindogs created. Along with the app being widely received Nexus Care have also won a High Commendation for Best IT or Communications Provider at the Care Home Awards for the new app!

“Nexus benefited our home to modernise the way of working, answering call bells and communication via the Nexus system.”

Bradley Hughes, Nexus Care customer – Caring Homes

According to Neil, feedback from year one has been really insightful and they already have a list of feature enhancements for version two, which they are looking to launch in 2019. Watch this space!