Nurse Call System Installation & Service

A resident pulls the bathroom cord halfway through the night shift. How long it takes someone to get there is recorded somewhere, or it isn't recorded at all. We design, install, and service nurse call systems for assisted living, memory care, skilled nursing, and outpatient clinics across North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia, and set them up so that response time gets logged, reported, and actually gets shorter.

Plan a Nurse Call System

The Report a Surveyor Asks For

State surveyors and family members ask the same thing after an incident: how long did it take staff to answer the call? Older systems can't say. A dome light came on, a tone sounded at the nurse station, and nothing was written down. Current systems time-stamp every call when it's placed, acknowledged, and cleared, and they print that history by room, by shift, or by caregiver.

That log is the most useful thing a nurse call system produces. Administrators use it to staff the evening shift properly, and directors of nursing use it to find the hallway where calls sit too long. When a complaint comes in, it's also the facility's best evidence. We turn reporting on for every system we install.

Wired, Wireless, or Both

Nurse call equipment falls into two broad families, and many buildings end up using a mix of the two.

Wired UL 1069 Systems: Hard-wired bed stations, bath and shower pull cords, and corridor dome lights, listed to UL 1069 for hospital signaling. Skilled nursing and hospital-type occupancies usually require this, and state plan reviewers check for it on new construction and renovations.
Wireless Pendant Systems: Residents wear a pendant or wristband that calls from anywhere in the building, including dining rooms and courtyards. It's common in assisted living and independent living, where residents move around and a bed station would sit unused most of the day.
Hybrid Buildings: A campus with a skilled wing and an assisted living wing often runs wired stations on one side and wireless pendants on the other, with both reporting to the same staff phones and the same response log.

What Goes in Each Room

The device list depends on the licensing category and the room type. For a typical resident room and the common areas around it, it usually looks like this:

Bed Station and Call Cord: A call cord or pillow speaker at each bed, with a cancel button so the call clears only once staff are physically in the room.
Bath and Shower Pull Cords: Pull cords long enough to reach from the floor, because most falls happen in the bathroom. These calls get a higher priority and a different tone.
Corridor Dome Lights: A light above each door so staff walking the hall can see which room called, and whether it was a routine call or an emergency.
Staff and Code Stations: Buttons in med rooms, therapy areas, and nurse stations that call for staff backup, plus a separate code button for a medical emergency.
Staff Duress: A wearable button that sends a caregiver's location when a resident becomes aggressive. It often shares the pendant hardware and ties into our <a href="/life-safety-systems/panic-alarms/" class="text-blue-600 underline hover:text-blue-800">panic alarm</a> work.
Door and Wander Alarms: Memory care exits that alert on the same staff phones as a resident call.

Get a Room-by-Room Design

What a Nurse Call System Costs

Price depends mostly on the system type and on whether the building is open or occupied during the work. As a rough guide, wireless pendant systems for assisted living tend to come in around $500 to $1,200 per resident room installed, including the corridor receivers and staff phones. Wired UL 1069 systems in skilled nursing usually run $1,500 to $3,000 per room, because each room needs a bed station, a bath station, a dome light, and the cabling that connects them. An occupied renovation costs more than new construction, since the work is done a few rooms at a time with residents still living there.

Ongoing costs are small but they aren't zero. Plan for pendant batteries, replacement cords, and an annual check of every station and pull cord. We quote the annual service with the installation, so the first year's budget covers the whole picture.

Request a Nurse Call Quote

Tying Nurse Call Into Doors, Fire, and Cameras

Nurse call works better when it's connected to the rest of the building. When the fire alarm goes off, memory care doors unlock on the same signal that sounds the fire alarm. A wander alert at an exit can pull up the nearest camera view on the charge nurse's screen. Access control on med rooms and the front entrance writes to the same event history as the nurse call system, so an incident review starts from a single timeline.

Because we install the fire, door, and camera systems ourselves, these connections get designed and tested together, so nobody has to sort them out between three vendors after move-in. Overnight, alarms and troubles can also route to our central station when a building runs with a smaller staff.

Keeping an Older System Running

Plenty of facilities in the Carolinas and Georgia still run nurse call equipment that's fifteen or twenty years old, and the original installer is no longer around. We service those systems, find replacement stations, and keep them working while the facility budgets for a replacement. When the time comes, we phase the upgrade wing by wing so there's never a room without coverage. The same approach applies across the building through our system takeover service, and our repair techs handle the calls in between.

Facilities We Install In

Most of our nurse call work is in assisted living and skilled nursing facilities, memory care units, behavioral health, and medical offices and clinics that need exam-room and restroom calls. Installation and service run out of our offices in Charlotte, Raleigh, and Greensboro, and we cover the rest of our service area in South Carolina and Georgia.

Talk to Our Healthcare Team

Nurse Call System Questions

Does an assisted living facility need a UL 1069 nurse call system?

It depends on the state licensing category and the scope of the project. Skilled nursing and hospital-type occupancies generally require UL 1069 equipment. Assisted living has more flexibility, and many facilities use wireless pendant systems. We check the requirements with the state plan reviewer before designing anything.

Can a nurse call system track staff response times?

Yes. Current systems log when each call is placed, acknowledged, and cleared, and report by room, shift, or caregiver. We set up reporting on every system we install and can send a weekly summary to the administrator or director of nursing.

Can you add wireless pendants to our existing wired system?

Often, yes. Many wired systems accept a wireless receiver, so residents can wear pendants while bed and bath stations stay in place. When the existing system can't take one, we run the two in parallel on the same staff phones. The assisted living nurse call page covers common setups.

How long does a nurse call installation take in an occupied building?

Plan on a few rooms per day in an occupied building. Cabling and central equipment go in first, and then rooms get switched over in small groups, so every resident has a working call device throughout. A 60-room assisted living building typically takes three to five weeks.

Do you service nurse call systems you didn't install?

Yes. We take over service on most existing systems, find replacement parts for older equipment, and keep them working until an upgrade is in the budget. See our takeover service for how the handoff works.

Nurse Call System Installation & Service

The Report a Surveyor Asks For

Wired, Wireless, or Both

What Goes in Each Room

What a Nurse Call System Costs

Tying Nurse Call Into Doors, Fire, and Cameras

Keeping an Older System Running

Facilities We Install In

Nurse Call System Questions

Explore More

More in Fire & Life Safety

Other Services

Industries We Serve

Where We Work

From Our Blog