There are no cameras, but this small wireless device helps the staff at Mulberry Gardens in Southington provide a higher level of care to its residents.
Perry Phillips, executive director of the senior assisted living facility, said 90 percent of the residents don’t even know it’s in their rooms because they don’t have to activate it.
But this high-tech system of motion detectors can alert staff to changes in a resident’s routine or even a fall without invading their privacy.
The system is called QuietCare and it’s a group of motion detectors strategically positioned in about two-thirds of the rooms at Mulberry Gardens.
During the first week it’s installed it gathers data on a resident’s routine. After that first week any information about deviation from that routine is sent to a server for analysis. The server then transmits the data back to the facility in real time and alerts the staff members by email or pager.
Say for example a resident typically uses the bathroom twice during the night, but one night is in there more frequently or is in there longer than usual. QuietCare will send a message to the nursing staff to let them know, Phillips said.
“It’s information we would have never had without QuietCare,” Phillips said.
Why would they want to know this information?
Laura Tarantino, one of the nurses at Mulberry Gardens, said it could help staff catch something like a urinary tract infection in the early stages.
And since the facility specializes in dementia care the sensors over the door alert the staff if a resident gets up and begins to wander in the middle of the night.
In the past Phillips said it may have taken longer for the staff to respond to a wandering resident, but with QuietCare they get a message right away.
Tarantino said it doesn’t take the place of staff, but it’s just another tool the staff is able to use in caring for the residents.
To the best of his knowledge, Phillips said he doesn’t know of any other facility in the state using this type of technology to monitor its residents.
Mulberry Gardens, first piloted the system three years ago, and now it’s in about two-thirds of the 95 rooms at the facility. QuietCare is now just part of the package for new residents, Phillips said.