Acoustic Monitoring WCS leading the way in technology for Care Quality WCS is a not-for-profit care organisation and pursue a policy of innovation and excellence and is currently installing an acoustic monitoring nurse call system at Drovers House which is new to the UK care home market with a view to roll out across our other new and older care homes. The new system should be operational in March 2016. At Drovers the WCS night team will work in the home Respecting residents’ privacy is of utmost importance to at night, with the help of the acoustic listening system. WCS, for this reason, appropriate usage procedures and The teams will take it in turns to keep an eye on the permissions will be established and adhered to. When alarm for a maximum of 1 ½ hours at a time, whilst explained correctly to them, clients and their peers keeping in touch with the other team members who welcome the use of this system as the residents are no are active throughout the care home. longer needlessly disturbed. Alert calls are made to mobile Acoustic Monitoring non-intrusively listens to sleeping handsets, or can be viewed on WCS monitoring screens. residents and triggers an alert when the sound level Staff are able to listen in and talk into the relevant room in a room exceeds individually set thresholds. This via the mobile handsets and the monitor screens. If enables staff to swiftly respond to residents in need required, the system is also used during the day to provide of care. Continuous monitoring replaces routine in- more intensive monitoring of residents’ with special room checks, so peacefully sleeping residents are not disturbed every hour by someone knocking on their door and checking them. Staff are then free to focus on those whose distress has triggered an alert. CLB Acoustic Monitoring and Nursecall unit

Proven technology Ed Russell – Operations Director - WCS “Acoustic monitoring has been used in the Netherlands for about 25 years and seeing it in action last summer was impressive. Staff there said they wouldn’t be without it and could not believe it wasn’t standard practice in the UK”. Ed Russell (operations director) Christine Asbury (Chief Executive) and Kay Ward (Deputy Operations director) visited De Hogeweyk in the Netherlands to observe the acoustic monitoring system in a care setting. “Carers whom we met in De Hogeweyk in Amsterdam have used the system say they feel they are in a better...