Island Nursing and Rehab Center is one of the first nursing facilities in the nation to utilize Scandent technology, a new state-of-the-art tracking system for residents who misplace their dentures, a common problem among older adults.
A statistically large number of nursing home residents lose their dentures, glasses or hearing aids each year. This causes a resident to have difficulty with eating, hearing or seeing. Denture loss, in particular, often leads to weight loss and more serious health problems.
The new Scandent tracking system uses RFID technology to prevent the loss of the resident’s dentures. A micro-size tag is embedded into the dentures and if the dentures accidentally fall into the trash, are placed on a food tray or not taken out of the clothing that is laundered an alarm sounds in a designated area. A special antenna that is mounted in the corridors of the facility sounds this alarm and sends an email to facility staff, informing them of the exact location of the dentures.
With the cost of each set of dentures often thousands of dollars, this new tracking system not only adds to the resident’s health and peace of mind, but it can also save them, or the facility, a tremendous amount of money.
This advanced technology ingeniously tracks any lost dentures and alerts our system to the specific location, so they are returned promptly to the resident. A consent form must be signed to participate in this program.