For many families, providing 24-hour care at home to loved ones with complex needs is a challenging, emotional experience. The stress of constantly monitoring medical equipment and ensuring the safety of the patient can be overwhelming. Enter BEAMS at Home, installation of the revolutionary system first implemented at Sheffield Children’s Hospital in family homes. Designed to assist people caring for those with complex needs, this acoustic bedside equipment alarm monitoring system provides assurance that critical alarms never go unnoticed.
Originally developed in collaboration with Sheffield Children’s Hospital, BEAMS was created with the vision of enhancing patient safety by ensuring all bedside alarms, even those hard to distinguish behind closed doors, were acknowledged. Recognising the potential, the multi-award-winning BEAMS it has been installed in the domestic environment.
With BEAMS at Home, the day-to-day life of caregivers is transformed. No longer bound to stay beside the patient in perpetual vigil, they can engage in other household tasks, family-wide activities or simply relax (essential for maintaining the ability to care), assured that BEAMS will alert them promptly if there’s an unexpected alarm from the critical equipment.
Key benefits include:
The system consists of a wall-mounted monitor and a central speaker connected through a dedicated Wi-Fi unit and modem. The monitor ceaselessly listens for distinct alarm signals from vital medical equipment, and it ensures caregivers are informed only when necessary.
Debbie Mace’s story is a testimony to BEAMS’ impact. Tasked with monitoring her two terminally ill children, both diagnosed with the incurable Mitochondrial disease, Debbie and her partner found solace in BEAMS. This system reduced their response time to crucial alarms to an average of 2.2 minutes during the day. More importantly, it restored a semblance of normalcy to their lives, allowing them quality time with their other children.
Discovering BEAMS during her children’s treatment at Sheffield Children’s Hospital, Debbie recounts, “One person had to stay with the children constantly as the machinery was too intricate for visiting nurses. The hospital connected us with Tutum Medical, and after a two-year adaptation process, our lives were transformed. We’re more relaxed, more rested, and deeply grateful for the massive difference this small device has made.”
If you’re interested in introducing BEAMS into your homes, please feel free to contact us. Funding solutions, like the one the Mace family benefited from through the CCG, are also available for those needing extra support outside of the NHS provisions.