Comparing nurse call technologies in 2026

Why compare these technologies?

The choice of nurse call technology structures your care home for ten to fifteen years. It conditions the duration of works, the initial budget, the maintenance cost, the ease of evolution and, more deeply, the perceived reliability by your teams and residents. This is not a trivial IT choice: it is a business architecture choice.

For a long time, nurse call in a care home boiled down to proprietary wired bus cabling, installed at construction and rarely questioned. This model still holds in new high-demand facilities, but loses ground on three fronts: heavy renovations in old building stock, the emergence of functional needs that wired does not natively cover (fall detection, indoor geolocation, fine traceability), and the budgetary arbitration of MR groups increasingly comparing initial investment to real added value.

Three families of wireless technologies have come to complement, then sometimes replace, traditional cabling. 868 MHz wireless, a European licence-free LPWAN radio band, has imposed itself on call buttons and sensors. Enterprise Wi-Fi, boosted by the spread of carer smartphones and tablets, leverages existing IT infrastructure. Bluetooth Low Energy, an open and inexpensive standard, enables presence detection, indoor geolocation and automatic action logging.

The debate is no longer between one winning technology and three losers. It plays out in the intelligent assembly of multiple layers, depending on the building, budget and target use cases. This guide gives you the criteria to arbitrate — without promoting one technology in particular.

For more: pillar nurse call module · twelve-module ecosystem.

The four nurse call technologies, explained

Before comparing, you must understand. Each technology has its own physics, an ecosystem of manufacturers, use cases where it excels and others where it becomes counter-productive. Here are the four approaches that structure the Belgian market in 2026.

868 MHz wireless communication — the radio dedicated to connected objects

Physical principle. The 868 MHz band is an LPWAN frequency (Low-Power Wide-Area Network) harmonised in Europe, open to connected objects without individual licence. It is part of ISM bands (industrial, scientific, medical), reserved for short-range equipment by ETSI and regulated by BIPT in Belgium. Its wavelength of about 35 cm crosses interior walls acceptably and its consumption allows 5-to-10-year batteries.

Range. Up to 1.5 km in open field with external antenna, 100 to 200 metres in an MR building depending on materials (reinforced concrete, partition walls, thick load-bearing walls). An 868 MHz gateway is typically installed per wing or per floor in larger residences.

MR use cases. Resident call buttons, bathroom pull cords, contextual fall sensors, Alzheimer wandering beacons, door sensors, carer emergency buttons. Healthcall partners: Blueup, Lehmann, Ajax. Pragma for high-current gateway power.

Enterprise Wi-Fi — IT infrastructure serving care

Physical principle. Radio network on 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands (802.11ac, 802.11ax aka Wi-Fi 6), broadly deployed in IT enterprise infrastructure. In MR, professional usage is on a dedicated VLAN isolated from visitor Wi-Fi, with WPA3 encryption or EAP-TLS authentication.

Range. 30 to 60 metres per access point indoor. A high-density mesh (one access point every 15-20 m in circulation zones) is needed for intensive carer use. Access points powered via PoE (single RJ45 per access point).

MR use cases. Professional Android carer smartphones, supervision tablets, DECT-IP, IP cameras, PoE sensors, 3CX central integration, professional building automation. Healthcall partners: Ubiquiti UniFi (access points + PoE switches), 3CX (IP central), Samsung XCover, Crosscall Core, CAT S, Sonim XP (pro smartphones), Snom/Grandstream/Doro (DECT-IP and SIP).

Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) — indoor precision on open ecosystem

Physical principle. Bluetooth Low Energy, versions 4.2 and 5.x, is a low-consumption variant of classic Bluetooth. Beacons periodically emit a frame containing a unique ID (iBeacon Apple, Eddystone Google or public standard profiles). Any BLE-compatible smartphone or DECT reads these frames and infers its relative position via RSSI measurement.

Range. 5 to 30 metres depending on configured power. In MR, typically 5-15 m for indoor accuracy of about 2 metres. Mesh of one beacon per room + corridors + common areas + exits.

MR use cases. Automatic in/out detection of room by smartphone or DECT carer, indoor geolocation of a wandering resident, contextual action logging, automated night round. Fully open ecosystem (iBeacon, Eddystone = public IEEE standards). Healthcall partners: Blueup (BLE beacons), Sonitor (high-precision indoor location for demanding cases).

Wired cabling — historical robustness

Physical principle. Dedicated wired bus connecting each call point to a central. Two main families: the proprietary two-wire bus (Tunstall, Ackermann, Televic, manufacturer-specific buses) and the standardised RS485 multipoint that supports tens of devices on a single twisted pair. Purely digital signals (call on/off) or more elaborate (status signalling, audio intercom superposition, signal lamp control).

Cases where cabling remains relevant. New-build with structural works under way. Heavy renovation where ceilings and walls are anyway open. Very high-compliance facilities where dependence on a radio network is principle-refused. Reuse of existing recent and good-condition cabling. Healthcall does not sell proprietary cabling but interfaces with documented open RS485.

Objective comparison on 17 criteria

Each criterion is rated factually. Star reading: ★★★★★ excellent, ★★★★☆ very good, ★★★☆☆ correct, ★★☆☆☆ limited, ★☆☆☆☆ weak. When the criterion is binary, we use ✓ (yes) or ✗ (no). Ratings reflect typical behaviour in a Belgian MR of 30 to 150 beds, based on installs done between 2017 and 2026.

For an atypical facility (very large size, heritage constraints, reinforced compliance requirements), a rating may vary by one star. A pre-technical audit remains essential.

Which technology for which situation?

No technology is universally superior. The right choice depends on your building, your existing infrastructure, your priority use cases and your budget. Here is a decision matrix based on the most frequent configurations in Belgian MR.

Healthcall integrates the four technologies

Healthcall is an independent non-manufacturer integrator. We have no cable catalogue to push, nor proprietary protocol to protect. For each care home, we carry out a free technical audit — building, existing infrastructure, equipment in place, priority use cases — and propose the most relevant technological assembly.

In the same residence, the four layers often coexist. 868 MHz wireless carries call buttons and bathroom pull cords, powered by long-life batteries. Wi-Fi transports professional Android carer smartphones (or DECT-IP as alternative), supervision tablets and the 3CX central. BLE equips rooms and corridors for presence detection and automated night round. Wired stays where it was already in place and remains in good condition, without forcing it to disappear.

Directly concerned Healthcall modules: pillar nurse call · BLE wandering prevention · fall detection · indoor resident tracking · carer phone.

Related resources

Official sources: BIPT — Belgian radio regulation · ETSI — harmonised standards · Compare to market alternatives.

Frequently asked questions