YELLOWKNIFE - Nurses at Stanton Territorial Hospital will now be able to receive patients' calls while on the move.

The new call system will provide nurses with a device resembling a cordless phone, and while away from the nursing desk it will allow them to respond to calls from patients.

Nurse Erin Wagner at Stanton Territorial Hospital checks out the new nurse call phone the hospital is installing throughout the hospital. - Jessica Klinkenberg/NNSL photo

"It's the most recent technology," said Steve Schaud, acting manager of facilities. "It's not top notch, but it's the most current. It definitely will help with patient safety."

The phone allows nurses to communicate with patients when they call, allowing nurses to finish up what they're doing in one room and move on, instead of running back to the desk, Schaub added.

The hospital decided last year to integrate the new call system into their technical services upgrades at the request of nursing staff.

"It'll make it easier for (nurses) to keep in touch with the patients," said Schaub.

The system has not been initiated yet, though Schaub said it will likely begin in the next couple of months.

"We still have to have the nurses trained on it," he said.

The phone also has other helpful features.

"When (the nurse) walks into the room the nurse call detects the nurse and announces that there is a nurse in the room," he said.

Unlike cellular phones, the new call system will not cause sensitive equipment in the hospital to malfunction, said Schaub.

"It's on a frequency that has been tested to be safe with the equipment," he said.

Other technical services upgrades being added to the hospital are patient wandering and halo monitoring.

The patient wandering system is being put into the extended care ward.

"It's a system that informs the nurse when a patient has left the ward," he said.

Halo monitoring is similar but has been put into the pediatrics ward. It alerts nurses when an infant or child leaves the pediatrics unit.