Medequip collaborates with care tech provider to test technology-enabled care solution
Wirral Council, Medequip and 2iC-Care have collaborated to put 2iC-Care’s interoperable TEC solution, Andi, to the test.
Andi is the first dispersed alarm unit which contains distributed IoT software that is designed to be interoperable with any care peripheral type from virtually any manufacturer.
Wirral Council says that it is committed to creating better care outcomes for service users. Embracing the most innovative care technology forms a key part of that commitment.
In June 2023, Andi’s hubs were installed in service users’ homes by 2iC-Care and Medequip, together with a personalised suite of peripherals including CAIR peripherals using RF868 and Frient peripherals using Zigbee.
Michael Hanrahan, Telecare and Telehealth Manager at Wirral Council said, “Andi is different because it’s truly agnostic meaning we’re not reliant on the same company making all their own peripherals and this opens up a huge opportunity.
“We want to be able to use the best of what’s out there so we can provide that flexibility and personalisation to people in their homes or in supported living accommodation.”
During the pilot, Andi’s ability to provide flexibility and personalisation gave carers the right data at the right time to detect an early-stage kidney infection. They then administered antibiotics and prevented an acute care incident and hospital stay.
In the days prior to the infection diagnosis, the service user had been displaying increased confusion and the GP diagnosed this as a progression of their Alzheimer’s. Luckily, Andi had been sourcing data from the connected peripherals to remotely monitor the service user.
Andi picked up that the service user’s bathroom visits had increased from their baseline of eight visits per day to 10 visits, then 12, then 14. This caused Andi to automatically raise a ‘high bathroom occupancy’ alert to the carers.
This data was taken back to the GP which informed a urine culture test leading to the kidney infection diagnosis. This early intervention meant the service user was prescribed antibiotics and they were able to recover at home and the care staff reported a marked improvement once the antibiotics had taken effect.
Carly Peckham, Registered Manager at Professional Carers said “Andi gave us what we wanted to see from start to finish. It’s sad that the doctor didn’t identify [the kidney infection] however because we could present Andi’s data, it did prevent that service user from being admitted to hospital.”
Andi provided Wirral Council with a single source of truth and actionable insights. Andi centralised all data from all peripherals in a single dashboard, removing the need to log into multiple portals to understand a service-users wellbeing.
Bespoke monitoring rules and thresholds for each service user were then applied by Wirral Council within the Andi solution. These rules remove the need for carers, the Wirral Council team or Medequip to constantly review the data. Instead, the rules trigger alarms and alerts in response to specific and customisable combinations of data, such as the ‘high bathroom occupancy’ alert.
Angie Buckley Extra Care Co-Ordinator at Professional Carers said: “Andi answers any queries we have, we’re not just guessing, the data is telling us the story.”
The analogue to digital transition is a unique opportunity to adopt modern, interoperable, future-proofed technology, like Andi, to make a meaningful and long-term difference to the life of service users and the efficiency of care services.
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