Seventy beds of the Santo Spirito Hospital in Sassia, the oldest in Europe active since 1198, have been equipped by ASCOM with a device that allows to reduce the distance between patients and their families imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic and to improve the safety of patients and staff. 

A caring environment that welcomes COVID-positive patients, characterized by a possible rapid deterioration of their health conditions, requires solutions that allow for the fastest and most effective mobile communication between patients and staff to allow an effective response. It is based on accurate information, any alarms and events that can negatively and quickly affect the state of health of patients.

Starting in November in one of the COVID departments of the Santo Spirito in Sassia Presidium, the initiative was born thanks to the collaboration with ASCOM, which proposed a practical solution thanks to which it is possible to avoid physical contact and at the same time guarantee medical support. ASCOM technology provides a constant communication channel, even on the move, with which healthcare personnel can check the requests of patients in real-time, guaranteeing rapid intervention, safety, efficiency in care flows, and ease of use.

The 70 inpatients of the ward have a practical and functional mobile device, Ascom i63, fully sanitizable, equipped with an alarm button with which the patient can send a request for assistance to the nursing staff in case of need. The nurse immediately receives the report on their i63 terminal with the precise indication of the patient’s bed that sent the report. Everything is managed by the Ascom Unite software platform for managing alarms and messages on the move.

The psychological aspect of the disease linked to COVID is undoubtedly one of the elements to be taken into consideration, given the inability to receive support from the family network and friendships that could positively affect the patient’s recovery. Ascom solutions, therefore, offer invaluable help to support both patients and staff employed for months in the fight against the pandemic.

Umbertina Tomassetti, nursing coordinator UOC General and Emergency Surgery at the Santo Spirito Hospital in Sassia, ASL Rome 1, says, “During this period, we found ourselves managing patients in isolation who, in addition to Covid, presented pathologies linked to the specificity of their surgical branch, often elderly people with various comorbidities. The possibilities of communication inside and outside the hospital in cases like these are very few. From January 2021, the General and Emergency Surgery department of the Santo Spirito Hospital of the ASL Roma 1 has started to use these devices that quickly and effectively connect hospitalized people and all the staff of the ward. In this way, it is possible to accept requests and exchange specific and accurate information, responding quickly to urgent situations that could compromise the state of health.”  She also adds, “The cordless phone allows quick internal communications between all staff and patients, who also can make calls outside with their families using the telephone provided in the bed. This system has allowed us to face emergencies thanks to the exchange of timely, effective and functional information.”