A Pilot Project for Switzerland

At the Obigrueh residential and nursing home in Schübelbach, Canton of Schwyz, 25 residents live under one roof. Around 30 employees from nursing, catering, housekeeping and administration are responsible for their care and daily needs.

Since September 2026, the facility has been using TeleAlarm’s new NurseCall 9s nurse call system. The project marks a special milestone for TeleAlarm: it is the first customer installation of NurseCall 9s in Switzerland.

The new system replaces an earlier TeleAlarm model and introduces new capabilities, particularly in resident location tracking.

From Alarm Activation to Targeted Assistance

One of the nursing home’s key requirements was to make it easier for staff to locate a resident after an emergency call had been triggered.

Residents are free to move around the building and its surrounding grounds. When an alarm is activated, nursing staff should not have to search for the resident first. Instead, the system should indicate as accurately as possible where the person is located.

To achieve this, a total of 25 indoor nodes were installed throughout the building. These wireless nodes are positioned approximately 15 metres apart along corridors and in areas near residents’ rooms. Two additional outdoor nodes extend location tracking to the surrounding grounds.

When a resident carrying a personalised wireless transmitter activates an alarm inside the building, the system uses the nodes to identify the area and floor where the resident is located.

For example, the system can indicate that Mr Müller is in the dining room on the ground floor. Nursing staff can then go directly to the specified location instead of first checking the resident’s room.

A Solution That Extends Beyond the Building

In addition to the indoor and outdoor nodes, the installed solution includes several other components. These comprise five CCU gateways with backup batteries, 28 mobile emergency call buttons for residents and five permanently installed call buttons.

The system is complemented by six wireless PIR motion sensors, two wireless I/O modules and an LTE router. Flexible wristbands are also available for the mobile transmitters.

To ensure that all these components function as an integrated system, the transmitters, receivers, software and peripheral devices had to be interconnected and configured.

Six Months of Planning and Implementation

Approximately six months elapsed between the initial planning stage and commissioning. During this period, the project budget and scope were defined, the technical implementation was planned, and the work was coordinated with the various trades involved.

This also included collaboration with the local electrician and the nursing home’s IT team. When installing a system in an existing care facility, technical work must be carefully scheduled to minimise disruption to ongoing operations.

The installation therefore took place while the nursing home remained operational. The objective was to integrate the new technology step by step without disrupting daily care routines.

International Collaboration

Several teams worked together on the technical implementation. Rodrigo Silva, Country Manager at TeleAlarm SA, led the project on site. Louis Augagneur, Product Specialist for NurseCall 9s, supported the technical implementation.

Additional support came from Finland: Hannu Tarkiainen of 9Solutions was involved as Deployment Manager and assisted with the final commissioning of the system.

Commissioning tasks included programming the transmitters and receivers, as well as configuring the nurse call software. The peripheral devices were then connected to the nodes required for resident location tracking.

The nursing home’s staff smartphones were also configured. These devices run the 9Solutions app, which serves as the user interface for employees in their daily work and provides access to incoming alerts and notifications.

Technology Designed Around Daily Care

The planning process involved more than simply installing new hardware. The technical solution had to be adapted to the building’s layout and the nursing staff’s daily workflows.

The positioning of the nodes was therefore a key element of the planning process. Only through the interaction between the wireless nodes and the personalised transmitters can the required location tracking be achieved both inside and outside the building.

The result is an interconnected system that combines individual components to deliver a significant benefit: when a resident calls for help, nursing staff receive not only an alert that assistance is needed but also an indication of where the resident is located.

A Successful Start for NurseCall 9s in Switzerland

With the successful commissioning in September 2026, an important milestone was reached. The Obigrueh residential and nursing home now has TeleAlarm’s latest nurse call system, providing a modern solution for alerting and locating residents.

For TeleAlarm, the project also represents an important real-world application: the installation at Obigrueh marks the first customer deployment of NurseCall 9s in Switzerland.

The accompanying video report offers further insights into how those involved experienced the project, the challenges they addressed during implementation and the nursing home management’s experience with the new system.