Author Archives: Becca

The NHS Digital Strategy sets out the vision for the future of healthcare in the UK, with Modern Methods of Construction (MMC) playing an important role in delivering the strategy. Static Systems’ bedhead services trunking and fully IP nurse call solutions can play a key role in helping project teams to deliver schemes that use modular build techniques – with in-built flexibility for the future.

SSG’s Ultima™ nurse call and critical alarm notification system connects equipment directly to the IP network using standard open architecture that does not require or depend upon any vendor-bespoke controlling hardware, such as power supplies, zone units or servers to facilitate the operation of the system.

The company’s trunking products have been designed to be delivered to site fully assembled with services pre-installed, tested and certified in line with current standards. Where required, they are gassed and pre-wired with modular wired connectors to provide a cost-saving and time-efficient solution.

Talk to us about your MMC requirements:
Ph: 01902 895551
E: [email protected]

Nurse call systems offer features, functionality and integration that go far beyond allowing a patient to attract staff attention. By integrating fully-IP critical alarm and ward communication technology with other existing or emerging healthcare technologies, clinicians benefit from improved communication and collaboration across the clinical space, as well as enhanced workflow efficiency.

Interoperable alarm and communication solutions from Static Systems Group (SSG) are set to be a key facilitator in the shift towards digitalised hospitals, helping to improve patient safety and free up more time for staff to care. The technology can be easily and cost-effectively integrated as part of an upgrade to a facility’s existing infrastructure – or can be designed into new build projects.

Fully-IP systems also provide the benefits of wireless technology such as RF connection of devices, but with the resilience and reliability of wired technology.

SSG helps healthcare providers embrace the benefits offered by fully-IP nurse call, including:
• Improving patient safety – real-time location sensors alert staff to a patient leaving their bed area, and room lighting can automatically operate to guide the patient safely to their destination

• Improving the patient experience – by providing patients with speech-enabled nurse call hand units and staff with smartphones, patients can speak immediately with staff. Alarm buzzers are replaced with notifications on staff smartphones or tablets creating a quieter, calmer environment

• Improving staff well-being and safety – replacing alarm buzzers with smartphones also reduces alarm fatigue and cognitive overload, while real-time location devices worn by staff assist in summoning assistance to the correct location in the event of an incident and help with task management by alerting the nearest available member of staff to a call

• Supporting workflow – staff receive only relevant and active events that have been automatically triaged and prioritised, and collaboration and communication can be improved when the nurse call system is connected with services in the hospital such as catering, housekeeping and portering

Talk to us about creating a connected hospital:

Ph: 01902 895551
E: [email protected]

Static Systems’ Fusion Healthcare Platform® is helping estates teams and the wider healthcare collective to manage the estate today, while also plan for the future by using existing nurse call infrastructure.

With its industry standard open architecture, the Fusion Platform seamlessly integrates nurse call – including third-party products – with medical systems, sensor technologies and best-in-class smart devices tailored to the individual hospitals’ preferred ways of working. This creates a patient-centric environment with more time to care, and a more supportive workplace experience for both care and engineering teams. It also significantly enhances the day-to-day running of hospitals through more efficient use of resources and a reduction in whole-life costs.

SSG has unrivalled experience of working on ‘live’ systems and is available in the first instance to provide condition surveys and make recommendations.

Fusion is compatible with Static Systems’ Ultima™, Codemlon™ and Aspire SmartSync® nurse call systems, and readily meets the infrastructure requirements of NHP projects, with interoperability to meet the NHS Digital Strategy.

Further information:/solutions/healthcare/integration-solutions-fusion-lnx/

Immediately the conflict started in Ukraine, Agnieska who is employed as a Surface Mount Operator, and Sarah, the company’s Surface Mount Team Leader, were moved to raise funds to help the millions of people who are facing a serious humanitarian crisis and are in need of urgent assistance. Through the kind and generous donations of colleagues a total of £370.00 was raised, which has been used to purchase food and medical supplies in Poland and sent to Ukraine.

As the conflict and associated devastation in Ukraine continues, Deirdre, SSG’s Manager for Client Services, organized a company-wide Easter raffle, raising a further £480, with prizes donated by colleagues.

Deirdre said: “We can’t ignore the absolutely devastating images we are all seeing in the news currently coming out of Ukraine. Whilst we can’t change this situation directly, we can in our own small way do something to support the countless numbers of women and children who through no fault of their own are finding themselves suddenly without a home and at the mercy of strangers.

“This money is going to be donated to the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) online for the Ukraine Appeal.”

DEC charities are in Ukraine and neighbouring countries meeting the needs of all refugees and displaced people. Donations are being used to do great things.

• £30 provides essential hygiene supplies for three people for one month
• £50 provides blankets for four families
• £100 provides emergency food for two families for one month

It’s that time of year when the minds of those in education start to focus on the next step. As a major employer in the area we’re working in partnership with Dudley College of Technology to support its students and the wider schools community.

At the end of March, SSG attended the Dudley College Appathon, an initiative to promote digital and tech opportunities to young people, with a focus on diversity and equality. Then in early April we attended the College’s ‘MyFuture Careers Fair’. Designed for students of Dudley College and Dudley Sixth, the fair provided insight into career opportunities as diverse as joining the armed forces, working with 3D VR software for the gaming industry, training as an optician or motor bike mechanic, and of course ourselves offering rewarding careers in electrical and electronic engineering.

Jennifer Terry, SSG’s Marketing Manager, comments: “It was an exciting opportunity for companies such as ourselves to raise their profile with a view to attracting the best apprentices in future years, while helping to broaden the career aspirations of those considering their future.”

Supporting apprentices

SSG has worked for some time with Dudley College as our trainer provider, and they are this year helping us to fill two Electronic Engineering Technical Apprenticeship places which will be offered to 19 year olds who have already completed or will be completing this year a Level 3 Engineering Qualification, and wish to study further to achieve Level 4.

Supporting up-skilling and re-skilling in the technologies industries

SSG is also a strong supporter of the Black Country & Marches Institute of Technology (IoT), located in Dudley, having provided our bedhead trunking and nurse call equipment within one of the training suites which was opened in September 2021.

It is our intention to continue to work with local education providers and we have been invited to work with the college to help them achieve their digital strategy which outlines a committed to: Enhance and streamline their business processes to support business continuity, and ensure that their staff and learners are equipped to thrive and succeed in the 4th Industrial Revolution.

Links:
www.blackcountryandmarchesiot.ac.uk
www.dudleycol.ac.uk

Static Systems Group (SSG) welcomes Gareth Walsh as the company’s new Commercial Director. Gareth will sit on the Board and will be responsible for the ongoing development of SSG’s customer experience; ensuring that SSG continues to support users of its solutions by maximising the functionality and uptime of the equipment supplied, with the purpose of helping people live better, safer lives.

Gareth has worked in the healthcare sector for 25 years, 18 of which were spent at Olympus, a Top 20 global medical device company specialising in products and services that facilitate early diagnosis and minimally invasive treatment.

Gareth brings extensive board level expertise in managing change, directing wide ranging complex projects and creating and leading high performing teams to deliver rapid growth, enhanced profitability and business transformation.

Rosie Cunningham Thomas, SSG’s Managing Director, comments: “Gareth is an ideal fit for SSG, particularly at this critical phase in our growth. He has an excellent track record and his career success to date demonstrates his commitment to being a supportive and transformational leader who influences change by example and team ownership. We are delighted to welcome him to the business.”

Gareth adds: “I am pleased to be joining SSG at such an exciting time in the company’s continued growth. My vision for our world-class customer facing team is to provide trusted insight and advice throughout each stage of the customer journey – from initial interest to end of equipment life – with the overarching goal of maximising equipment efficacy and providing the right support at the right time and in the right place.”
Gareth graduated with a degree in Human Biology from Oxford Brooks University and lives in the UK. He will report directly to Rosie Cunningham Thomas and will work closely with SSG’s recently appointed Strategic Marketing Director, Zillah Moore.

SSG has appointed Zillah Moore as Strategic Marketing Director to help grow the company’s market share and drive sales across both domestic and international markets.

Zillah, who joins SSG on 1st December 2021, has worked in the healthcare industry for more than 25 years and has extensive experience across different areas in the sector, including medical devices, digital health and pharmaceutical and diagnostic services. She has held a number of sales and marketing leadership roles, including senior positions at BTG and GE Healthcare, and was Northern European Sales Director for Boston Scientific Interventional Oncology division. Zillah has also successfully developed product and solutions’ strategies across a range of disease areas in both health and social care. Most recently, she has led the marketing, market access and clinical applications teams at Tunstall Healthcare, developing the company’s UK strategy for driving digital transformation and integration within the health and social care sectors.

In her role as SSG’s Strategic Marketing Director – a newly formed role as a result of a company restructure – Zillah will be responsible for developing a robust marketing strategy to accelerate the company’s domestic and international sales growth. This will be achieved by driving innovation in product and service development, entering new and vertical markets, developing sophisticated branding and communications and collaborating with highly respected third-party partners.

Zillah comments: “I am passionate about working closely with customers, patients and services users to develop products and solutions that will make a difference to how health and social care is delivered. I’m very excited to be joining SSG and supporting the organisation to build on its trusted legacy as it starts the next chapter of growth as part of the Halma family.”

Zillah has a BSc in Biology from University of Durham and lives in the UK. She will be based out of SSG’s manufacturing headquarters in Wolverhampton and will work closely with SSG’s soon to be appointed new Commercial Director. She will report directly to the company’s Managing Director, Rosie Cunningham Thomas.

Rosie adds: “We are delighted to welcome Zillah to the board at SSG. She will play a vital role in developing a well-defined marketing strategy which not only supports our overall business growth, but also ensures we take full advantage of the opportunities to increase our market share and drive sales.”

Following on from our successful reaccreditation to the International Environmental Management System (ISO 14001) in September 2021, we have added to our list of industry accreditations with ISO 45001:2018, the latest international standard for Occupational Health and Safety (OH&S). Achieving this accreditation demonstrates our continued commitment to proactively improving our safety performance in order to prevent accidents, injury and ill health.

The requirements for the ISO 45001:2018 Occupational Health and Safety standard were developed by the world’s health and safety bodies and a group of industry health and safety experts. The risk-based approach is designed to anticipate hazards – rather than just react to incidents. Companies applying for accreditation must demonstrate that they have a robust Occupational Health and Safety system which is designed to improve the health and safety of both employees and other personnel working with the company.

SSG was awarded ISO 45001 following a rigorous four-day auditing process which was conducted by DAS Certification, a leading global provider of certification services. To achieve accreditation, companies are required to consistently maintain a safe and healthy workplace, and to continuously look for areas where further improvements can be made. As part of the assessment process, each factor that could potentially affect employee health and wellness is scrutinised and optimised for excellence.

James Draper, Safety, Health & Environmental Manager at SSG, comments: “We believe that health and safety is everyone’s responsibility, and the health, safety and wellbeing of our employees and contractors is paramount. Maintaining the highest standards of occupational health and safety requires successful leadership, planning, effective teamwork, resources and operational control. All of these areas were rigorously assessed as part of this accreditation process.

“The achievement of this standard – which comes less than two months since we gained recertification to ISO 14001 Environmental Management Systems standard – clearly demonstrates to our employees, contractors, stakeholders and investors that health and safety lies at the heart of our operations.”

Matt Wakelam, Senior Healthcare Solutions Manager at Static Systems Group (SSG), explores the ways in which the COVID-19 pandemic has stimulated more sophisticated ways of working and led to far greater recognition of the many benefits delivered by advanced nurse call technology.

Digitalisation is changing the face of healthcare, and, through necessity, the COVID-19 pandemic has encouraged greater acceptance of the digitally-enhanced hospital; allowing transformation to take place more quickly than would have been the case in normal times. The pandemic saw SSG work in close collaboration with numerous clinical teams throughout the UK and overseas to help hospitals embrace the full functionality of nurse call –far beyond patient-to-staff communication. By developing innovative solutions that integrate critical alarm and ward communication with other advanced healthcare technology, we have not only helped healthcare providers to reduce the exposure between COVID-positive patients and care teams but have, at the same time, assisted hospitals in enhancing workflow efficiency as a result of improved communication and collaboration across the clinical space.

One interesting example of this has been the acceptance of speech – available with our systems – to help reduce the risk of infection transmission.

The benefits of two-way speech communication between patients and clinical staff

During the early stages of the pandemic, for example, we were approached by a UK-based NHS Trust with whom we have a longstanding relationship, and tasked to help reduce risk.

We enabled the nurse call speech facility, connected it with the existing telephony system and provided staff with ‘hands-free’ devices. This meant that prioritised and triaged events were sent directly to staff, allowing alerts to be received at any location, and two-way voice communication between staff and patients was made possible – allowing conversations to take place and assessments to be made without the need to approach the patient bedside.

Reducing the risk of transmission

The amount of repeat visits to a patient for a single call was consequently reduced as by talking with the patient in advance, staff were able to check which information or supplies were required prior to attending the bedside. By minimising the amount of time spent in the patient’s room, the risk of exposure and transmission of the virus was much lower. Furthermore, the amount of PPE being used was significantly reduced as it was only now required when entering the patient room and not for every query.

Having a two-way speech facility also delivers benefits for COVID-positive patients being cared for in isolation. Hands-free and touch-screen intercoms located outside the patient’s room allow the patient to communication more easily with those responsible for their care, and to receive reassurance.

By also integrating our nurse call systems with other facilities such as lighting, blinds, heating and entertainment, we are able to make patients feel more in control of their immediate environment, which can have a positive impact on patients who are facing a prolonged and difficult period in hospital.

Another project we worked on was for the design, installation and commissioning of a nurse call system for North Lantau Hospital Hong Kong Infection Control Centre (HKICC), a temporary isolation hospital funded by the central government for treating COVID-19 patients in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR).

The hospital covers a land area of 30,000 square metres and comprises six inpatient buildings, a medical centre and other facilities. It is capable of providing 136 wards and 816 negative pressure beds. Its design is in line with the standards required for a permanent structure. To build a hospital of this scale in Hong Kong would normally take four years, however, with new building technology and construction going on around the clock, the project was completed in just four months.

In order to assist the hospital in achieving its vision, the nurse call system SSG recommended included a patient-to-staff speech facility at each bedside; offering all the benefits highlighted above in the UK-based project. Furthermore, at HKICC, the patient hand units we supplied contain a silver-based antimicrobial agent which is incorporated during the manufacturing process to help further strengthen the infection control measures instigated by the hospital. Importantly, the active agent will not degrade over time and can be cleaned with a sterilising wipe to eliminate bio-hazards and reduce cross-infection risks between users.

Improving communication and collaboration between clinical teams

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, many hospitals have benefited from enabling two-way speech, and thanks to the interoperability between systems, trusts have also reaped the benefits of improved communication and collaboration between individual team members and between different clinical teams.

The latest nurse call devices allow individual clinical staff and different care teams to talk to and message each other directly. And, when you add in logic-based automation the solution becomes even more powerful – automating or smartening up interaction between different parts of the clinical space.

By using logic, nurse call events can be processed independently or with information gathered from multiple systems to create intelligent alerts and automated actions or responses. Once the events are being automatically triaged, we can then look at how different parts of the clinical space collaborate or communicate with each other. The goal is to create a unified approach to prioritising and delivering alerts as this will help to create consistency in the way care teams respond and provide staff more time to care.

Reducing alarm fatigue and cognitive overload

The COVID-19 pandemic has placed care teams globally under unprecedented levels of pressure and has drawn attention to the many interruptions and events that are simultaneously clouding the clinical space. While communication between patients and care teams is a fundamental aspect of every healthcare setting, if clinical staff are exposed to an excessive number of alarms – commonly referred to as ‘alarm fatigue’ or ‘cognitive overload’ – this can ultimately put patients safety at risk, and can prove disruptive if clinical staff are frequently notified of events relating to patients whose care they aren’t responsible for.

Nurse call solutions can play a vital role in helping to reduce alarm fatigue and alleviate cognitive overload, and have done so throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

By automatically triaging and prioritising events so that the event details are only sent to those staff members that need to be aware of them, communication between patients and care teams can be made easier. With events only sent to the relevant staff member, they can then automatically clear the events from their body-worn notification devices as soon as they are dealt with. As a result, staff are only presented with active events that are intended for them. This not only has the instant effect of reducing alarm fatigue and cognitive overload, but also means that all the events are logged and can be guaranteed a response.

Reducing alarm fatigue and alleviating cognitive overload will continue to be a significant challenge for trusts, and one which must be addressed in order to avoid clinicians becoming overwhelmed and, in the worst-case scenario, missing a potentially clinically significant event.

How we automate, collaborate and communicate within the clinical space will continue to evolve, with AI at the forefront of future developments, and we are proud to be playing our part in developing intelligent solutions for the future.

Looking to the future

We anticipate even more widespread adoption of innovative and sophisticated technologies, as well as more examples of integration with other clinical systems and building services.

Static Systems Group is pleased to announce the appointment of Rosie Cunningham Thomas as the company’s new Managing Director, effective July 27th, 2021.

Rosie has more than 20 years of strategic and operational leadership in global corporates, SMEs, and start-ups. Over the past 12 years, she has specialised in leading and scaling early stage, innovation driven health technology companies through critical growth stages to full commercialisation and clinically evidenced market acceptance.

Rosie has prior Medical CEO experience at Episurf Medical AB, ToHealth Ltd., and FreeHand 2010 Ltd. Prior to her business leadership roles, she held several senior commercial positions at Bard BD and Smiths Industries’ medical division. Most recently, Rosie was the CEO at NuVision Biotherapies, a leading regenerative medicine company which develops life-saving biomaterials.

Discussing her new role, Rosie said: “I am delighted to be joining Static Systems Group (SSG) as it starts its next growth phase as part of Halma plc. The Turner family legacy is impressive, and together as SSG, we can honour this legacy whilst building for the future, creating sustainable and lasting value.”

Rosie is a dual UK/US national having emigrated to the UK to marry her English husband. She is a pharmacist and earned a pharmacy degree from the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia and studied business management at the University of Pennsylvania. She will be based out of the SSG facility in Wolverhampton.