Web Services APIAustco offers an open API for integrations with any clinical, facility, or 3rd-party system.
Interoperability made easy
An Application Programming Interface (API) is a direct point of integration with a computer system. Austco’s API is a set of tools to interact directly with the nurse call system.
In the nurse call industry, there used to be an arms race to see which vendor had the most integrations with the most systems. With our API, Austco enables quick integrations with any system.
Custom software applications
Inject alarms from other systems like fire or security, and leverage the communications infrastructure already in place: lights, tones, displays.
Subscribe to alarms to use nurse call data in other applications, like dashboards or census views.
Use the signal events (button presses) to integrate Austco’s handsets with your building management system.
Example: telemetry monitoring center
Challenge: staff monitor telemetry equipment readings in an office far away from the actual patient rooms. They need a way to trigger alarms from this location if they see anything unusual.
Solution: a custom monitor screen on a laptop or tablet. Each bed is a “button” and will trigger a telemetry alarm within the nurse call system when pressed. Uses the Alarm Inject function of the API.
Example: custom census view
Challenge: Customer needs a simple census view of specific locations within the hospital and whether there are active alarms. Also incorporates data from smart beds and EMR/EHR data. Needs to be configurable per unit with different locations shown and different ancillary data.
Solution: Using Alarm Subscribe feature of API, census view has an open connection to the alarm server and will receive active alarms immediately. Can be handled with lights, tones on a unit-by-unit basis.
Use developer time for new features, not meetings
Historically, to create an integration, you’d need developers from both companies talking to one another, trying out code, scheduling meetings to discuss progress. Integrating a single system might take months.
With the API, we cut the time in half (or better). We hand developers the documentation and their personal API key and they can begin developing immediately.
Because we’re using standards protocols like REST and SOAP, and common data object and markup formats, like JSON and XML, dev time is spent perfecting the details, not figuring out how to get the systems to talk to one another.
API Components
Input Alarms
Inject alarms into the nurse call system from other systems. Fire, Security, Wander, Duress, and more. If you have a location, a type, and start/end times, you can inject the alarm and display it through the nurse call infrastructure. Acknowledge, reject, and escalate individual alarms.
Export Alarms
Pull active alarms from the nurse call system into other systems. Use a web socket connection to receive a constantly-updating feed of active alarms. Use them in your custom applications, census boards, home-grown analytics, etc.
Signal Events
Use the API to handle button presses on Austco handsets. Intended for integration with BMS systems, the feature allows patients to control the room environment with no relays or extra wiring. Control lights, blinds, thermostat, or custom map a button to do a certain thing.