Digital Innovation to help protect staff, residents and visitors in care homes
Wyld Networks together with an NHS Region in Scotland are working to develop and deploy digital innovation in Care Homes. We are looking to address, through technology, who can and cannot safely access Care Homes, as well as monitor social distancing during the lock-down and post the current Covid-19 outbreak.
According to early figures gathered by UK-based academics, around half of all Covid-19 deaths in several European countries, are occurring in care homes. They are warning that the same effort must be put into fighting the virus in care homes as it is in hospitals.
Furthermore, in 2017/2018 in the UK alone, over 26,000 deaths were associated to influenza and elderly people in Care homes are at particular risk. Wyld technology will provide a safer environment and communication facility for staff, residents and visitors.
Staff members and visitors simply download the mobile application on their smartphone. Care home providers will create, or already have, a database of contact details including mobile phone numbers for all regular visitors. All unregistered visitors will be asked to download the mobile application.
The technology has 3 applications:
1. Access control via smartphones based on health and registration status of staff and visitors.
Provides a solution that will inform operational staff of visitor and staff status once they enter a geofence (virtual wall) outside of the care home facility in respect to:
A. Having been vaccinated against CV19 and other viruses such as Influenza
B. Having been tested positive for the antibody
C. A self-diagnostic symptom algorithm imbedded in the application making a judgement of the potential for having the virus
Options A. and B. are trust based input from staff and visitors (The government are discussing creating a central database where the input would be regulated rather than based on trust). The solution will be enhanced once this regulated database is implemented.
Option C. is a self-diagnostic symptom algorithm which asks the smartphone owner to answer a variety of questions that would determine the likelihood of the person having an infection.
Once the visitor or staff member enters the geofence (See figure 1.) a message will be sent to the smartphone automatically (in that geofence) informing the person whether they can enter the facility or not. Management at the care home can decide the basis for entry or not in the Wyld management tool i.e. option A. B. or C.
Additional geofences can be created within the facility which are particularly sensitive areas where only staff members can enter. In this scenario all visitors who approach the geofence will be sent a message informing them not to proceed into such areas.
This system will also be used to register date and time of visitors and staff entering the facility. Once the staff member or visitors leaves the facility by passing through the geofence the system will update the register of those having left the facility with the date and time.
2. Communication network and locating staff, visitors and residents.
Once inside the facility the technology will automatically connect all staff members’ smartphones together. Staff operational managers can send messages (figure 2) to the staff.
Figure 2. Advanced notification solution
Managers will also be able to visualise on a computer screen all visitors and staff members as they move between geofences within the facility. (figure 3 & 4). Residents would be equipped with NFC wristbands rather than mobile phones. This would add additional value in locating everyone in the facility in the event of emergency situations such as a fire.
Figure 3. Visualisation of visitors, staff and residents within the facility.
Figure 4. Staff operation using pc with Wi-Fi access.
It would also be possible to add into the smartphone application a panic button that could be used in any event for safety reasons. Once pressed on the smartphone it would send the staff operational manager the location and name of the person. (Figure 5).
Figure 5. Example Safety check in on the smartphone application
3. Social distance monitoring and alerting
Social distancing is a vital part of reducing the spread of any virus, particularly within enclosed buildings. Wyld technology creates a dynamic geofence around all visitors and staff as they move through the care home facility (Figure 5) and will allow staff managers to visualise and analyse social distancing of staff and visitors in real-time and retrospectively.
Analysis will enable measures and process to be put in place to ensure social distancing can physically be achieved and if required will alert by messaging any person who has inadvertently been in close contact with others.