27 Apr NHS Hospital ensures patient safety and clarity

With over 9,000 staff caring for patients around the clock, St George’s University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust is the largest healthcare provider in Southwest London. The Trust serves a population of 1.3 million across London and a number of services also cover large populations from Surrey and Sussex, totalling around 3.5 million people.

Since the start of the Covid-19 outbreak in 2020, like many hospitals around the world, St George’s University Hospital have had to make huge adaptations to the way they work, hospital protocols and health and safety regulations. Dedicated to keeping their patients, staff and community safe, the Trust reached out to Contacta to assist them in this task.

The Hospital was looking for a communication solution, having found that their newly installed hygiene screens compromised the clarity of communication. With patient discretion a priority, the Trust were keen to address the issues immediately.

Due to strict hospital protocols Contacta engineers were unable to visit the site to survey, but the team were instead able to specify a system from detailed photographs sent through from the facilities team. Based on these photos the team at Contacta recommended the STS-K058 Window Intercom System.

Enabling clear communication through barriers, the STS-K058 is a versatile window intercom and can be installed on a whole range of screens, producing the same, high quality result. It also comes with a built-in hearing loop so people with hearing aids can hear staff clearly and cut out background noise.

After an induction on Covid regulations and equipped with their PPE, Contacta engineers installed 6 systems at various locations around the hospital for Phase 1 of the project and have since returned to install a further 25 systems in Phase 2. The team worked out of hours to ensure minimal disruption to the operation of St George’s.

The STS-K058 proved adaptable for the different types of screens and counter tops, with some screens installed at the edge of the counter, with limited space for a window intercom. The engineers were able to overcome this together with the hospital facilities team who were able to customise the screens, cutting into them to allow the system speaks pods to be installed.

Hospital staff have been extremely pleased with the results and the vast improvement of sound clarity due to the systems. Patients can hear important information without staff having to raise their voices or discretion being compromised. In early 2021 Contacta and St George’s Hospital were in the process of planning Phase 3 for a further 25-30 systems.