RCare, maker of wireless nurse call systems, has announced their integration with Amazon Alexa “smart home” speakers for senior housing clients. The RCare Nurse Call skill has completed Amazon certification and now will be available to the public on the Alexa skill store, according to a news release from the company.

“It was an obvious move for us to create an Alexa skill for our residents and caregivers,” RCare CEO Myron Kowal said. “Almost everyone uses virtual assistants these days. Why shouldn’t our clients and customers benefit from easier hands-off technologies?”

Residents who live in senior living communities with the RCare wireless nurse systems will be able to verbally request caregiver assistance using Alexa. All the resident needs to do, according to Kowal, is say “Alexa, tell my nurse I need help.” Alexa then will send an alert through the RCare system, which can be helpful for residents unable to get to a telephone or press a button.

“To the best of our knowledge, we’re the first nurse call system to do this,” Kowal said. “We’re getting out on the front lines because we believe talking to your nurse call system will be commonplace in the future.”

Caregivers also may benefit from the technology, according to RCare, because they can dismiss the “help” alert when they are called to a room, to indicate to other caregivers that the call has been addressed. Caregiver then can keep their focus on the resident.