By Healthcare Facilities Today

NORTHFORD, Conn. - Silent Knight by Honeywell (NYSE: HON) recently released the Pro-Alert™ 480 Area of Rescue System to enable facilities to meet new code requirements, and satisfy the communication needs of the United States’ growing population of healthcare facilities with the Pro-Alert™ 610 Nurse Call system.

Both products are manufactured by Jeron and fit well into the Farenhyt line of fire alarm and emergency communication systems, enabling Farenhyt Distributors to offer facilities more comprehensive life safety solutions.

New changes to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and International Building Code (IBC) requirements have created stronger demand for communication systems within facilities mandated to have an area of rescue (a.k.a. area of refuge) for those physically impaired individuals unable to evacuate a building during emergencies. High-rise buildings, and assisted living, office and apartment complexes, are commonly required to provide an intercom-type system to allow those awaiting help within areas of rescue to communication with building management, first responders and/or a central monitoring station. 

Unlike common intercom systems, the Pro-Alert 480 is fully-supervised, meaning facility management will always be immediately alerted by the central station of any system faults or issues to ensure the system is kept fully operational. The Pro-Alert 480 Area of Rescue intercom system also offers an optional interface to allow offsite calls.

Buildings, such as nursing homes, senior living facilities, and medical clinics requiring a nurse call system can utilize the Pro-Alert 610 Nurse Call system to provide instant communication between occupants and staff. The Pro-Alert 610 allows facilities to customize system alerts, offering up to 16 programmable alert levels per room. The master units can be programmed to display a variety of information, including high-priority calls, longest wait calls and emergency calls for example. A unique mobile paging feature is also available to enable staff to receive messages anywhere in the facility.

“These systems have to be well thought out and designed to the needs of the facility,” said Jim Spooner, marketing product manager, Silent Knight. “That’s why it makes so much sense for factory-trained experts in fire alarm and emergency communication systems to supply and install these types of systems.”

The Pro-Alert 480 Area of Rescue system and Pro-Alert 610 Nurse Call system are available through all Silent Knight Farenhyt Distributors throughout the U.S. Contact a Silent Knight regional sales manager to locate nearby distributors. More information on the Pro-Alert 480 and 610 systems from Jeron is available online at www.farenhyt.com.