Responder IV/5 Integrated Nurse Call Features Elpas RTLS Functionality

Visonic Technologies and Rauland-Borg announce the interoperability of Elpas RTLS technology with legacy Responder IV Nurse Call installations. Thanks to Responder 5’s new interoperable platform, hospitals implementing the Network Adaptor Module (NAM) to update their Responder IV installations can now utilize the open integrations functionality of Responder 5 Software to add Elpas RTLS technology. Now Responder IV installations can support real-time staff presence functionality throughout the hospital to room and sub-room level accuracy, automatic visual indication that a patient’s needs are being responded to and automatic nurse call cancellation.

Hospitals may easily leverage their Elpas RTLS investment to enhance other areas of patient and personnel safety including Infant/Baby Protection in maternity wards, Staff Attack/Duress Alerting and Wandering Patient Supervision. Elpas Active RFID/RTLS can also be scaled to Manage Medical Assets in order to reduce shrinkage and lower maintenance related labor costs without degradation to nurse call functionality.

London School of Hygiene Researchers Select Elpas for Behavior Pilot Study

Researchers at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) have selected Elpas RTLS for a pilot study of personal hygiene behavior in the home. Elpas RTLS will be used to determine whether real-time location data will be able to unobtrusively provide accurate information about an individual’s every day hygiene activities over extended periods of time.

 The selected Elpas Hygiene Monitoring Solution combines Active RFID Wrist and Asset Tags, RF Tracking Readers and LF Exciters to accurately define sub-room areas such as bathroom sinks, toilets and showers. The tags when worn by the participants and attached to various home hygiene objects such as toothpaste and soap dispensers will enable researchers to infer behavior practices based on the simultaneous co-location of the participant and the tagged hygiene objects.

 Elpas was selected from other competing RTLS systems due to its ability to identify key behaviors of multiple people within a household, by locating people and objects to small zones within rooms. Elpas was also able to provide application specific Active RFID Tags with a long battery life (to avoid the need to interact with participants on a regular basis to change batteries), ability to access the data remotely, and being relatively cost effective compared to other options.

Elpas RTLS will provide behavioral measurement reports relating to the daily hygiene activities (such as hand washing, bathing, toilet usage, oral hygiene and vitamin ingestion by family member, location and time). Researchers also intend to use Elpas  to investigate ways to promote healthy habits as a way to achieving sustainable improvements to health related behaviors.

Elpas RTLS Now Includes Wireless Temperature Monitoring

The new Elpas Temperature Monitoring Solution provides hospitals with a cost-effective, automated way to remotely monitor environmental sensitive medical assets or environments that require strict temperature range compliance for patient care and safety.

Elpas Temperature Monitoring enables hospitals to automate their temperature reporting protocols and practices (including the storage of temperature readings, triggered alerts and staff response logs). The solution supports automatic temperature-triggered alert notification options plus user customizable reports for analyzing temperature and deviation trends.

The Elpas Temperature Monitoring Solution utilizes the all new IP-64 water-rated, refrigerator mountable Elpas Temperature Sensor, which features an internal thermistor for the wireless monitoring of ambient temperatures. The sensor transmits real-time, location defined temperature readings through the Elpas Ethernet enabled RTLS infrastructure using standard wired or wireless Ethernet technologies to VT’s Eiris Active RFID/RTLS Monitoring Platform or to other networked hospital management systems. The sensor also features wireless call-button functionality to report preconfigured maintenance messages plus remote device supervision to ensure complete field reliability.

VT Adds New Elpas Active RFID Tags

New versions of the Elpas Healthcare Position Tag and the Elpas Active Identity Badge have been factory configured to store the ID of the last LF Field that the devices have passed through. This enables ELC Controllers to support RTLS button-press based Elpas Healthcare  Safety Solutions (such as wireless duress alerting) using strategically placed LF Exciters rather than having to install IR Readers in every room.

Consequently when the tag’s call-button is pressed, the tag will transmit a data message containing the tag ID, the button-press event and the last LF ID which the ELC can process to determine the location of the duress call.

By combining the Last LF tags, ELCs and the new Elpas Messaging Gateway, powerful, distributed and robust wireless button-press safety solutions may be achieved for a very affordable price.

Should you require further information, consult your local Visonic Technologies Representative for additional details.

VT Upgrades Eiris Tracking and Management Software

EIRIS 4.7.1 is now available for customer deployment. This new release of our field-proven Eiris Tracking and Management Software has undergone a substantial upgrade in functionality including an abundance of new bundled features.

Using customer feedback collected by our professional services group over the past year, Eiris V 4.7.1 now provides a richer collection of tools to easily configure, manage and use VT’s range of unified and hybrid Elpas, SpiderAlert and VisAccess Safety, Security and Visibility Solutions.

Key new features and capabilities in Eiris 4.7.1  included:

• Comprehensive support for hybrid Elpas installations that include both legacy LON and Elpas2 (Ethernet) network infrastructure devices. This is useful for scaling/expanding existing LON installations using Elpas Ethernet/RS-485 hardware.
• Optional Visitor Module & Parking Lot extensions for VisAccess installations plus new LF Supervision, and Floor Recovery utilities for Elpas systems.

VT’s Presence at HIMSS11

Visonic Technologies’ sales and management teams have recently returned from the HIMSS11 (Healthcare Information and Management Systems) conference where VT exhibited Elpas solutions at the conference’s new RFID and RTLS Showcase pavilion. The pavilion was designed by the RFID in Healthcare Consortium in conjunction with HIMSS. Visitors to this pavilion were able to learn more about the benefits of implementing RFID & RTLS solutions in their healthcare facilities.

The Hospital Smart Room was the main attraction of the pavilion, created to simulate a real patient room, exhibiting these technologies. VT’s BabyMatch Infant Protection Solution was among the solutions demonstrated. Visitors were able to see the full functionality of the infant protection solution including baby-mother match tests and exit and matching alarms. Pavilion visitors were also invited to visit VT’s kiosk where they were able to receive further information on other Elpas Active RFID & RTLS Healthcare Solutions.

Chubb Edwards to showcase Elpas Security Solutions at Contech in Montreal

Chubb Edwards  (a VT Canadisn certified security partner) will be demostrating at the Contech Building Events  Show – Nov. 25th at the Palais Des Congres de  Montreal, how Elpas Real-Time Tracking (RTLS) Solutions can enhance personnel and visitor safety in commercial, governmental, healthcare and educational  building environments.

Contact Mohsen Hekmatyar at : mohsenh@visonictech.com for additional show details.

Happy Birthday Shay!

Shay is our QA Team Manager, he is responsible for our high quality Active RFID products,

Happy Birthday Shay!

Enhanced Elpas Reusable Tag for Infant Protection & High-Risk Patient Applications

VT announces the availability of its enhanced Elpas Active RFID/RTLS Reusable Tag.  The tag’s unique form factor and comfort makes it ideal  for protecting infants from abduction in maternity units or for the monitoring and tracking of high-risk patients who wander.

The tag’s dual technology transmitter emits  radio frequency (RF) messages plus infra-red (IR) messages that can be used to determine the location of the infant or patient to room level and sub-room level precision in open and enclosed indoor spaces without EMF interference to hospital equipment. The tag also has  a low frequency (LF) receiver that supports chokepoint area detection.

The Reusable Tag  supports Elpas2; VT’s new, innovative topology for backhauling RFID/RTLS security and safety solutions over wired or wireless Ethernet/Wi-Fi networks and also complements VT‘s growing portfolio of 433MHz Active RFID/RTLS tags for asset security and utilization, personnel and patient safety and remote sensor applications.

VT adds sub-room location accuracy with new Elpas2 High-Definition IR Reader.

 Visonic Technologies announces the immediate availability of its new Elpas2
High-Definition IR Reader. The device is designed to detect and relay Sub-Room Location data from Elpas IR-Enabled Active RFID Asset, Personnel or Infant Protection Tags to host applications; facilitating the real-time tracking of valuable fixed and mobile assets, high-risk patients as well as personnel or visitors 24 hours a day with pin-point accuracy.

“The new Elpas2 High-Definition IR Reader enhances RTLS performance in healthcare, senior living and general office environments by providing reliable, yet low-cost sub-room location accuracy” said Michael Wasserstein, CEO of Visonic Technologies. “As example, our new IR reader provides hospital administrators with the ability to accurately identify different patient-beds within the same medical ward; enabling the automatic logging of patient and caregiver interaction.”
The Elpas2 High-Definition IR Reader is plug and play compatible with the Elpas2 RF Ethernet Reader, making possible the leveraging of legacy wireless or wired Wi-Fi or Ethernet Networks plus XML messaging for integration with 3rd party applications.

The Elpas2 High-Definition IR Reader complements and adds to VT’s growing portfolio of Ethernet and LonWork network Active RFID/RTLS fixed topology devices; and is to be marketed through the company’s worldwide network of qualified partners.

For more information about the Elpas2 High-Definition IR Reader, contact Barry Insell at: Barryi@visonictech.com.