Nurse call sizing calculator
Describe the ward. Get the Signavanc model that fits, how many nurse stations it takes, an indicative bill of materials — and the models that were ruled out, with the reason.
Your ward
A few answers. The result updates as you type.
Across all wards
Areas with their own nurse desk
Leave blank to assume wards are equal
Assuming 2 equal wards of 30 beds. A single larger ward can change the station count.
Door indicators, one per room
Pull-cords, one per wet room
Used only for the Turn Over Time estimate
Indicative bill of materials
For Signavanc Air on 60 beds across 2 nurse stations. Quantities are a starting point; the site survey fixes them.
| Item | Qty |
|---|---|
| Bedside calling unit with handheld pendant | 60 |
| Toilet / shower pull-cord switch | 30 |
| Corridor door indicator (multi-colour, per call type) | 30 |
| LCD nurse-station console | 2 |
| On-site mini server (per station) | 2 |
| Central reporting server | 1 |
| Mobile calling unit (per nurse on shift, optional)optional | 10 |
| 5A UPS for each nurse station (recommended)optional | 2 |
Bedside units on Signavanc Air: 2, 3 or 4 module. Every model carries bedside calling, pull-cords, door indicators and a hidden Code Blue.
Turn Over Time estimate
A queueing model, not a measurement. Change the assumptions to match your ward.
Signavanc Air records the real number for every call. Once it is installed, this estimate is replaced by your own data.
Email me this as a report
The recommendation, the ruled-out list, the bill of materials and the assumptions, formatted for a procurement file — plus a link that reopens this exact configuration. An engineer sees the same report and can pick the conversation up from there.
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Nurse call sizing report — Infra DigiTech Pvt Ltd
https://infra-digitech.com/tools/nurse-call-sizing-calculator?beds=60&wards=2&bld=occ&cat6=u&reports=1
Ward
60 beds · 2 wards · wards assumed equal (30 beds) · 30 rooms · 30 toilets/showers · Occupied ward · Cat 5/6: Not sure · Response-time records required
Recommendation
Signavanc Air — Wi-Fi — the hospital's network, or one the system generates
Signavanc Air fits 60 beds across 2 wards on 2 nurse stations, one per ward as planned. 3 models were ruled out by your constraints.
- The fastest rollout for an occupied ward: battery-powered call points, no cable, and the ward never closes.
- It can generate its own Wi-Fi and hub network, so hospital IT carries no clinical traffic.
Also fits: Signavanc LR (2 stations)
Ruled out, and why
- The ward stays occupied, so cable cannot be pulled to every bed. Both wireless models fit without opening a wall; this one needs cable.
- The ward stays occupied, so cable cannot be pulled to every bed. Both wireless models fit without opening a wall; this one needs cable.
- You asked for response-time records. Signavanc Lite has no reporting module and does not calculate Turn Over Time, so it cannot produce the evidence a NABH or JCI review asks for.
- The ward stays occupied, so cable cannot be pulled to every bed. Both wireless models fit without opening a wall; this one needs cable.
Indicative bill of materials — 2 nurse stations
2 nurse stations, one per ward as planned.
| Bedside calling unit with handheld pendant | 60 |
| Toilet / shower pull-cord switch | 30 |
| Corridor door indicator (multi-colour, per call type) | 30 |
| LCD nurse-station console | 2 |
| On-site mini server (per station) | 2 |
| Central reporting server | 1 |
| Mobile calling unit (per nurse on shift, optional) (optional) | 10 |
| 5A UPS for each nurse station (recommended) (optional) | 2 |
Turn Over Time estimate
Mean call to bedside ≈ 3.8 min (waiting ≈ 1.8 min) at 67% load on free nurse time. Assumptions: 10 nurses on shift, 30% of time free to respond, 4 calls per bed per shift, 4 minutes per call, 8-hour shift. M/M/c queue (Erlang C). A model, not a measurement.
Infra DigiTech Pvt Ltd · Sales +91 7975843985 · [email protected] · https://infra-digitech.com/tools/nurse-call-sizing-calculator
Read the ruled-out list before the recommendation.
The model at the top is the best fit among those that survived your constraints. The list underneath is the more valuable half of the page: it names each model that cannot serve the ward as you described it, and says why in one sentence you can act on. Most specification mistakes in this category are not choosing a weak model — they are choosing a model that lacks one thing the brief later turns out to need, usually response-time reporting or a way to fit an occupied ward without cable. If a model you expected to see has been ruled out, the sentence tells you which answer to change, or which requirement to take back to the committee.
The station count and bill of materials are sizing, not pricing. They tell you how many consoles, units, indicators, pull-cords and hubs a quotation should contain, so you can compare quotations line by line and spot the one that is missing a server or has one station carrying more beds than the model allows. The Turn Over Time figure is a queueing estimate from your own staffing assumptions; it becomes a measurement only once a system with reporting is installed, at which point the real number replaces it.
Hard filters first, then a ranking. Every rule is written down.
Nothing here is hidden weighting. The engine applies five elimination rules drawn from the published limits of each model, ranks whatever survives against the situation, then sizes stations and materials arithmetically. The source is small enough to read, and the same rules are written out below so a consultant or a procurement team can check any result by hand.
1. Elimination rules
A model with any blocker is ruled out and shown with the sentence that removed it.
- 1Response-time records requested → Signavanc Lite is removed. It has no reporting module and does not calculate Turn Over Time.
- 2Mobile alerts and escalation requested → the three cabled models are removed. Mobile calling units, the head-nurse dashboard and SMS are on the wireless range only.
- 3No Cat 5/6 and the building is not a new build → Signavanc IP is removed. Retrofitting structured cable means opening finished walls.
- 4Occupied ward → every cabled model is removed. Cable cannot be pulled to occupied beds; both wireless models fit without opening a wall.
- 5Thick walls, basements or separate blocks → Signavanc Air is removed. Wi-Fi does not carry through them; the LR mesh does.
2. Ranking the survivors
Points for how well each surviving model suits the situation; the top scorer is recommended and the rest are listed as alternatives.
| Situation | Winner |
|---|---|
| New build or full rewire, Cat 5/6 possible Most deterministic — a dedicated structured-cable run to every bed, reporting into your own server. | Signavanc IP |
| Occupied ward in a difficult building Self-healing long-range mesh carries through masonry, basements and between blocks. | Signavanc LR |
| Occupied ward, straightforward building, opening soon Fastest rollout: battery call points, no cable, on hospital Wi-Fi or its own network. | Signavanc Air |
| Cable is possible, no Cat 5/6, wants an LCD station and reports Ordinary 4-core cable carries a full console, multi-colour indicators and centralised reporting. | Signavanc Ultra |
| Cable is possible, budget is the constraint, no reporting needed Lowest cost per bed with correct room-and-bed identification, Code Blue and pull-cords. | Signavanc Lite |
3. Stations and materials
Wards are the input; stations are the answer. They are only the same number when every ward fits inside one panel or console.
stations for a ward = ⌈beds in that ward ÷ model limit⌉, where the limit is 256 (LR), 30 or unlimited (Air, own network or hospital Wi-Fi), 100 (IP), 56 (Ultra) or 26 (Lite). The largest ward is sized as you entered it; the other wards share the remaining beds equally. Left blank, every ward is assumed equal at ⌈beds ÷ wards⌉. A 40-bed hospital split 25 + 15 changes nothing for Ultra, but the 25-bed ward sits right on Lite's 26-bed limit — which is why the field exists.
Bedside units equal beds. Door indicators equal patient rooms (default half the beds). Pull-cords equal toilets and showers (default one per room). Hubs serve one station and are counted ward by ward: Signavanc IP needs one 12-port switch per 12 cabled points in a ward, counting every panel, pull-cord and indicator because each has its own run; Signavanc Ultra needs one 26-port hub per 26 bedside and pull-cord units in a ward. Models with reporting add a mini server per station and a central server where there is more than one; Signavanc IP reports into your own server instead.
4. Turn Over Time — Erlang C
Nurses are servers, calls are arrivals: an M/M/c queue.
λ = beds × calls per bed per shift ÷ shift hours (calls per hour)
μ = 60 ÷ minutes per call, c = ⌈nurses × free-time share⌉, ρ = λ ÷ (c·μ)
With a = λ ÷ μ, the probability a call waits is P(wait) = [aᶜ ÷ (c!·(1−ρ))] ÷ [Σₖ₌₀ᶜ⁻¹ aᵏ÷k! + aᶜ ÷ (c!·(1−ρ))], the mean wait is W = P(wait) ÷ (c·μ − λ), and Turn Over Time is shown as W plus half the service time, the typical point in a call at which the nurse reaches the bed.
Defaults: 4 calls per bed per shift, 4 minutes per call, 30% of nurse time free to respond, one nurse per six beds. Change any of them; the page recalculates.
Limitations, stated plainly
- The tool cannot see your walls. A wireless recommendation still needs a radio-path check on site, which is part of every survey we do.
- The bill of materials assumes standard ward geometry. ICUs with one nurse per bed, isolation rooms and paediatric wards change the counts.
- The Turn Over Time estimate treats calls as random arrivals with an average duration. Real wards have peaks at medication rounds and shift change; the estimate is a fair average, not a worst case.
- It sizes the Signavanc range only. If another manufacturer's system is being compared, use the station counts and bill of materials as a checklist for their quotation rather than as a rating of it.
Every model the calculator chooses between.
Each page carries the full specification the rules above were drawn from.
Sizing a nurse call system.
How many nurse call stations does a hospital need?+
One per ward as a starting point, then more wherever a single ward exceeds what one station carries. Signavanc LR carries up to 256 calling units per station, Signavanc IP over 100, Signavanc Ultra 56, Signavanc Air 30 on its own network (unlimited on the hospital's Wi-Fi) and Signavanc Lite 26 beds per panel. The calculator sizes your largest ward against that limit and rounds up, so a 40-bed ward on Signavanc Lite needs two panels while the same ward on Signavanc Ultra needs one station. If you leave the largest ward blank it assumes all wards are equal.
Which nurse call system is best for a 100-bed hospital?+
It depends on the building more than on the bed count. A 100-bed new build with Cat 5/6 on the fit-out drawing points to Signavanc IP. A 100-bed hospital that is already occupied points to the wireless range — Signavanc Air for a straightforward building, Signavanc LR where walls are thick or wards sit in separate blocks. Enter the details above and the tool shows which and why.
Is the calculator's recommendation a quotation?+
No. It is a specification aid: the model that fits your constraints, the station count and an indicative bill of materials. Quantities are refined at a site survey, which is also where a wireless radio path is checked through your actual walls. The emailed report is what you take into that conversation.
What does a nurse call system need for NABH accreditation?+
NABH does not mandate a brand or a model, but its patient-safety and continuous-quality-improvement standards ask hospitals to monitor response to patient calls. That means the system needs to record response times — Turn Over Time — and report them per ward and per period. Every Signavanc model except Lite does this, which is why ticking the response-records box rules Lite out.
How is Turn Over Time estimated, and how accurate is it?+
It is an M/M/c queueing model (Erlang C): calls per hour arrive at a pool of nurses, each call takes an average service time, and only the share of a nurse's shift that is free to respond counts as capacity. The defaults are 4 calls per bed per shift, 4 minutes per call and 30% of nurse time free, all of which you can change. It is a model with stated assumptions, not measured data; once a system with reporting is installed, your own Turn Over Time replaces it.
Can I share or save a result?+
Yes. Every input is encoded in the page address, so copying the link reopens the exact configuration. The emailed report carries the same link plus the recommendation, the ruled-out list, the bill of materials and the assumptions, and a Save as PDF option appears once it has been sent.
Want an engineer to check the result?
Send the link. We read the same configuration you see, confirm the model against your floor plan and come back with a site-survey date — the step where the radio path is checked through your actual walls.