Maintaining Your Nurse Call System: A Quarterly Checklist

Why Testing Matters

Call points fail quietly — a button that no longer latches, a pull cord that has been tied up out of the way, a dome light bulb gone, a mobile route pointing at a handset that left with a former staff member. None of it shows until a patient calls and no one comes.

The Quarterly Routine

• Every call point: activate it, confirm the corridor light, the console alert and any mobile route; confirm cancel-at-source works.
• Emergency and code-blue points: confirm priority override and that they cannot be cancelled remotely.
• Console and displays: check all zones annunciate, audible levels are right, and the event log is recording.
• Power: test battery backup by simulating a mains failure; check battery age.
• Routing: review nurse assignments and escalation timers with the charge nurse against current staffing.

Keep the Record

Log each point tested, the result, and any fault raised and cleared, signed and dated. That record is what turns "we look after it" into evidence an accreditation inspector accepts — and it is exactly what a maintenance contract with us delivers.