January 30, 2020
Nurse Call Systems’ Unique Requirements
Nurse call and emergency call systems have a demanding set of requirements. These systems need to perform at the highest level of reliability in complex and adverse environments. As technologies advance, the devices and systems they operate over need to be assessed and tested for proper functionality under difficult circumstances.
Standards development and compliance
UL’s Healthcare and Life Sciences division is dedicated to patient safety. Where nurse call and emergency systems and there unique requirements are concerned, Underwriters Laboratories, our nonprofit affiliate, saw the opportunity to author a set of Standards to specifically address these demands.
- UL 1069 Standard for Hospital Signaling and Nurse Call Equipment was written to deal with the noise and electrical interferences common in hospital and healthcare facilities.
- UL 2560 Standard for Emergency Call Systems for Assisted Living and Independent Living Facilities examines reliability outside of, but within proximity to, hospital and healthcare facilities.
In order to show compliance with NFPA 99, Health Care Facilities Code, healthcare facilities will be looking for compliance to UL 1069. UL 1069 is a performance based Standard to ensure minimum system configurations are met and all calls for assistance are properly routed to the nurse station. If the same system is used in an assisted living facility, UL 2560 comes into play. If a system is used for both a healthcare facility and an assisted living facility, a combined evaluation can be conducted to save time on the evaluation.
As experts in both standards, UL is equipped with the knowledge and facilities to test for each and recognize when testing for both is required. For more information on nurse call and emergency call systems, visit our nurse call page.