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Healthcare & care facilities

Precise location for hospitals and care facilities

UWB real-time location for staff safety, patient care and equipment, with sub-metre zones where precision matters. Hosted on-premise or in the cloud, designed in Finland and delivered with healthcare solution partners.

Talk to us about a care pilot
Noccela ID Badge shown from both sides

Three problems on every ward

Care facilities run on limited staff time. Location answers three questions that otherwise cost minutes, many times a day.

  1. Searching for equipment

    Pumps, wheelchairs, beds and monitors are somewhere in the building. Every search takes time that staff would rather spend with patients.

  2. Calls for help without a location

    A staff alarm or a resident’s call is only as useful as the responder’s knowledge of where to go.

  3. Residents who wander

    In memory care, doors stay locked because staff cannot see who is near an exit. Precise zones make it possible to keep more doors open.

Where precision changes the outcome

Six capabilities on one infrastructure, from staff safety to equipment finding.

Staff safety badge and call button

The ID Badge’s call-for-assistance button sends an alert with the wearer’s position. The badge’s LED and buzzer can signal back to the wearer.

Equipment and bed finding

Smart Tags on equipment, beds and carts. Search on a live map, see where things were last used, and find what is missing before it is needed.

Alarm zones, wander alerts and evacuation

Zones around exits, stairs and restricted rooms raise alerts to staff. In an evacuation, a list shows who has reached the assembly point.

Call points that know where they are

Andon Buttons work as wireless call points that send their own location with every call, and confirm the call with their LED.

Senior care alerts

Alarm zones, call buttons and man-down notifications based on the badge’s accelerometer, for residents and staff in senior care.

Child care and play areas

Boundary alerts tell staff in daycare centres and indoor play parks when a child leaves an agreed area.

Which accuracy do you need?

Healthcare location systems are sold in accuracy classes. Choose the class each use case needs; UWB covers the top of the ladder.

Accuracy classes for healthcare location systems
Accuracy classQuestion it answersTypical technologiesTypical care use cases
Near-room Which ward or corridor?Bluetooth signal strength, Wi-FiRough location of mobile equipment
Room-certain Which room?Infrared, ultrasoundRoom-based workflows such as nurse-call presence
Bay or bed Which bed or bay?Dense infrared or ultrasound, UWBMulti-bed rooms, bedside equipment
Sub-metre UWB Which side of the door, which bed, which device?UWB, Bluetooth angle of arrivalExit zones, staff alarms, equipment in crowded rooms

If you only need to know which room something is in, room-level technologies can be cheaper. UWB pays off where sub-metre zones, long tag battery life and two-way alerts matter, and it can run alongside other systems. Read UWB vs Bluetooth for the details.

How it works in a ward

Ceiling base stations (UWB anchors), badges, buttons and tags, rules in the platform, and alerts where staff will see them.

  1. Base stations on the ceiling

    Beacon 3 base stations take power and data over one Ethernet cable. Measure two, and the rest calibrate themselves.

  2. Badges, buttons and tags

    Staff wear ID Badges, call points are Andon Buttons, and equipment carries Smart Tags. Patients and residents wear a tag only when there is a care reason for it.

  3. Rules and alerts

    In the Location Intelligence Platform, you set zones, who is alerted and how: text messages, displays, signalling lights or your own systems through webhooks.

  4. Hosted where you need it

    Run everything on an on-premise server inside the hospital network, or as a cloud service.

Privacy, hosting and data protection

Locating staff and patients is sensitive. The system is built so that you decide what is recorded, who sees it and where it is stored.

  • On-premise or cloud

    Run the positioning engine and platform inside the hospital network, or as a cloud service from an EU company.

  • Purpose first

    Each use is defined in advance. Location data collected for staff safety is not used to monitor working hours or performance.

  • Staff consultation

    Staff and their representatives are consulted before go-live, and patients or their representatives are told why a tag is used.

  • Pseudonymised badges

    Badges can be mapped to roles instead of names, with access to identities limited to the people who need it.

  • Short retention

    Alerts can run without storing movement trails, and you decide in advance how long events are kept.

  • No cameras, no audio

    The system locates radio tags only. It records no images and no sound.

Read more about hosting, security and data protection

Products for care facilities

Indoor base stations, badges for staff, call points, asset tags and the charging dock for shift changes.

Noccela ID Badge on a black Noccela lanyard

ID Badge

Wearable personnel badge with a call button, LED and buzzer.

Details
Noccela Andon Button, a white wireless call button

Andon Button

Wireless call button that sends its own location with every call.

Details
Noccela Smart Tag, a small black asset tag

Smart Tag

Small asset tag for tools, carts, pallets and equipment.

Details
Noccela Beacon 3 base station in black and white with its mounting plate

Beacon 3

Compact PoE base station for indoor sites, installed like a security camera.

Details
Noccela ID Badge Charging Dock with 48 charging slots

ID Badge Charging Dock

48-slot charger for ID Badges at shift change and clock-in gates.

Details

On-premise server

Keep the positioning engine, the platform and all location data inside the hospital network.
Details

Proof

The technology, proven in other demanding sites

This page describes capabilities rather than named healthcare references. The capabilities a ward needs are the same ones running in public projects elsewhere.

Positioning accuracy, up to
10 cm
Coverage per base station, up to
500 m²
Sealed, rechargeable ID Badge
IP67
Badges charged at once in the Charging Dock
48

Badges, zones and supervisor alerts

Badge alerts at set distances, restricted zones and text messages about people alone in danger zones, in a workplace-safety pilot.
Konecranes Hyvinkää case

Finding tagged items on large floors

Pallets and vehicles tracked and counted remotely across 12,000 m² with 36 base stations.
DB Schenker case

Delivered with healthcare solution partners

Care processes, nurse-call systems and hospital IT need local expertise. We work with partners who bring it, and supply the positioning, devices and APIs.

For healthcare integrators

Combine Noccela positioning with your nurse-call, alarm or care software, with brand customisation in the platform’s admin panel.
Partners & OEM

For developers

Webhooks for calls and zone events, a real-time stream of positions and an HTTP API for history.
Developer hub

Frequently asked questions

Is this a medical device?
No. Noccela’s devices and platform are not certified as medical devices. They locate people and equipment and route alerts to support care workflows; they are not intended for diagnosis or treatment, and they do not replace clinical monitoring or certified nurse-call systems.
Which accuracy do hospital use cases need: room, bed or sub-metre?
Finding equipment usually needs room level. Bed-level and sub-metre accuracy matter for multi-bed rooms, exit zones and staff alarms. If you only need to know which room something is in, room-level technologies can be cheaper; UWB pays off where sub-metre zones matter, and it can run alongside other systems.
Can the system run on-premise inside the hospital network?
Yes. The positioning engine and the platform can run on an on-premise server, so location data stays inside your network. Base stations need no public IP address, no static IP and no access to your private network.
How do staff call for help?
With the button on their ID Badge or with a wall-mounted Andon Button. The alert carries the position of the badge or button, so it can be sent to the nearest colleagues, a display or your alarm system.
Do badges need charging, and can they be cleaned?
The ID Badge is rechargeable and sealed to IP67, and the 48-slot Charging Dock charges a whole shift’s badges at once. Asset tags run on replaceable batteries for typically several years. Ask us about cleaning agents that suit your infection-control rules.
Can location events trigger nurse-call, alarm or display systems?
Yes, through open APIs: webhooks push events such as a call or a zone entry, and a real-time stream delivers live positions. The receiving system’s integration is built by your solution partner, your IT team or our engineers. See the developer hub.
How is personal data handled under GDPR?
Each deployment starts from a defined purpose. Badges can be pseudonymised, retention is set in advance, and staff representatives are consulted before go-live. There are no cameras and no microphones: the system uses radio tags only. Read more about hosting, security and data protection.
How long does a ward installation take?
It depends mostly on cabling. Each base station needs one Ethernet cable for power and data, and after two are measured the rest calibrate themselves, so no survey of every device is needed. We plan the installation with you and your partner from the floor plan.
Does UWB interfere with medical equipment?
UWB devices transmit at very low power spread over a wide band: in the 6–8.5 GHz range the regulatory limit is a mean power density of −41.3 dBm/MHz. Hospitals assess radio equipment near medical devices under their own rules; we provide the radio specifications and conformity information your clinical engineering team needs. See the compliance page.

Plan a care pilot

Tell us about your ward, care home or day-care centre and what you want to locate. We will propose a pilot with a solution partner.

Talk to us about a care pilot Find a partner