Nurse Call Design for Irish Hospitals: A Primer

Nurse call design is one of the most rapidly evolving areas of ELV design for Irish healthcare facilities. A technology that was defined by a bedhead unit, a pull cord and a corridor light for the first fifty years of its existence has transformed in the last decade into an IP-networked clinical workflow platform — integrating with real-time location services, Wi-Fi clinical devices, electronic patient records and BMS environmental monitoring. For Irish architects and M&E consultants working on HSE Capital Programme projects, understanding the current state of nurse call design for Irish hospitals is essential for producing a brief that gets the right system specified and coordinated correctly with the wider ELV scope.

What Is a Nurse Call System and When Is It Required?

A nurse call system allows a patient to alert nursing staff to a need for assistance — traditionally via a pull cord or bedhead call button, now increasingly via wearable devices or bedside tablets. In Irish healthcare facilities, nurse call systems are required in: all acute hospital wards and bays; private hospital patient rooms; residential care and nursing home bedrooms; mental health and dementia care unit bedrooms; and any facility subject to HIQA (Health Information and Quality Authority) inspection where response time to patient calls is a regulatory measure.

The Four Generations of Nurse Call Technology

Wired Conventional Nurse Call

The oldest technology — a dedicated wired zone system where a pull cord activates an indicator light at the zone corridor panel. No individual call point identification; only zone-level reporting. Not appropriate for new HSE Capital Programme projects in Ireland where full audit trail and individual device identification are required. Still found in older Irish hospital and nursing home stock.

Wired Addressable Nurse Call

An addressable nurse call system identifies each call point individually by address on a proprietary loop network, providing individual audit trails and staff assignment capability. Proprietary cabling is still required (separate from structured cabling), but functionality is significantly better than conventional systems. The dominant technology in Irish hospital nurse call for the last decade — now being superseded on new builds by IP-based systems.

IP-Based Networked Nurse Call

IP nurse call uses the building's Cat6A structured cabling network — standard ICT infrastructure — rather than dedicated proprietary cabling. Call points connect via PoE from standard network switches. A server-based software platform manages call routing, staff assignment, escalation and reporting. The advantages over wired addressable are substantial: no proprietary cabling cost; easier future expansion; powerful analytics and reporting for HIQA governance; and seamless integration with RTLS, Wi-Fi clinical devices and electronic patient records. IP nurse call is the HSE's preferred system for new acute hospital builds in Ireland.

Wireless and Wearable Nurse Call — The 2025 Frontier

Wireless nurse call using Wi-Fi or DECT radio allows patient call from wearable devices — particularly relevant for ambulatory patients in rehabilitation, mental health and dementia care settings where pull cords are inappropriate or ineffective. Wearable nurse call devices can also provide patient location data via RTLS, enabling elopement prevention alerts when a patient moves outside their designated care zone. ASDV specifies wireless nurse call as part of the ICT and ELV design scope on relevant Irish healthcare project types.

HSE Capital Programme Nurse Call Requirements

The HSE Capital Programme issues project-specific briefs that define nurse call system requirements for each scheme. Standard requirements for acute hospital projects include:

• Individual call point identification (addressable or IP — not zone-based only)
• Full audit trail of all calls, staff responses and cancellation events with time-stamps
• Integration with RTLS for real-time staff location and response assignment
• BMS interface for environmental alerts (room temperature out of range, humidity alert)
• Clinical governance reporting: response time metrics by ward, by shift, by call type
• Integration with fire alarm system — call points silenced or switched to evacuation mode on fire alarm event
• HIQA inspection documentation output: system configuration, call records, response time statistics

Nurse Call Integration with ELV Systems

Integration with CCTV and Access Control

In Irish mental health and dementia care facilities, nurse call must integrate with CCTV (camera pointing to the bed/room activates on nurse call event) and access control (door release or alarm on patient elopement detection). These integrations are defined in the nurse call system specification and must be reflected in both the CCTV design and the access control C&E matrix — a coordination requirement that is frequently missed when the nurse call, CCTV and access control designs are produced independently.

Integration with BMS for Environmental Control

IP nurse call systems can receive environmental alerts from the BMS — room temperature, humidity or CO2 readings outside acceptable ranges — and display these on nurse station screens alongside patient call status. Conversely, nurse call occupancy data (beds occupied, beds empty) can be used by the BMS to optimise HVAC control in ward areas. This bidirectional integration requires a BACnet/IP or Modbus interface between the nurse call server and the BMS — specified by the ICT/ELV designer and confirmed with the BMS contractor at coordination stage.

Patient Real-Time Location Systems (RTLS) — The IP Overlay

RTLS tracks the physical location of patients, staff and assets in real time. For Irish hospital nurse call design, RTLS infrastructure (BLE reader arrays or Wi-Fi APs with location capability) provides: automatic staff assignment to patient calls based on nearest available nurse; response time tracking for clinical governance; location of emergency equipment (crash carts, infusion pumps); and patient elopement alerts. RTLS infrastructure is part of the ICT and ELV design scope on HSE Capital Programme acute hospital projects and must be specified in coordination with the Wi-Fi design, structured cabling design and nurse call system specification.

ASDV designs nurse call systems as part of the full healthcare ELV scope for Irish HSE and private hospital projects. See our healthcare ELV design Ireland page and our ELV design consultant Ireland service page for the full scope.