A failed call system in the Emergency Department and Radiology at Geary Community Hospital will be replaced in the coming weeks.

The call system failed in mid October and was found un-repairable. Currently patients are pulling the nurse call to light up the indicator light outside of their rooms and using a manual bell to alert nurses. That system causes patient safety and satisfaction concerns for the hospital.

“It was back to the old fashion way of doing things,” according to  Joe Stratton, GCH CEO. “Now we can feel comfortable going forward in the next couple of weeks we will have a full installation of the new system in both the emergency department and imaging.”

Staff received two bids to replace the call system and the GCH Board of Trustees elected to go with a bid from Electronic Contracting for an Ascom Telligence C300 call system. The cost of the system fully installed will be just slightly under $27,000. The alternate bid from Hill-Rom was more than double that price at $64,264. Staff recommended to go with the Ascom system from Electronic Contracting.

Stratton said they will contact Electronic Contracting Wednesday and inform them that they won the bid,”I’m going to say they’ll be in here within two weeks putting in the system and then that will probably be a three to four day process to put that all together.”