Introduction/Overview
This documentation outlines the PCS integration between mCare and Earzz. It will explain how to set up the integration and how data flows between the two systems.
What is it?
Earzz is an innovative, AI powered acoustic monitoring solution designed to h elp care homes deliver proactive, privacy respecting care. Unlike traditional monitoring systems that may rely on intrusive methods, Earzz utilizes advanced artificial intelligence to listen for and identify specific, crucial sounds, without recording or s toring sounds, ensuring resident privacy is always maintained. The compact Earzz
device is placed in a resident room and configured via an intuitive app to listen for a pre selected set of sounds from its ever growing library. When a chosen sound is detect ed (e. a cough, a scream, a movement noise, a thud), Earzz instantly sends a real time notification to designated devices which allows carers to respond proactively.
This integration directly empowers care teams by aiding in areas such as fall prevention, providing specific behavioural anomaly notes for improved record keeping, and enabling more proactive, person centered care planning. By seamlessly feeding these insights into mCare, Earzz enhances both resident safety and
staff efficiency, ensuring carers have the immediate, privacy respecting information they need to provide the best possible support.
Key Features
Enhanced Privacy – Earzz is designed for privacy, never listening to conversations or storing audio recordings. This ensures resident dignity and privacy are always maintained while providing essential insights.
Tailored Personalisation – You have full control to choose which specific sounds Earzz listens for, and precisely how and when you receive alerts. This ensures a personalized monitoring experience that fits individual resident needs and care routines.
Proactive Real-Time Notifications for Critical Events – Receive instant notifications directly to your connected phones, tablets, and smartwatches when chosen sounds are detected (e.g., a cough, a scream, a thud). This empowers carers to respond proactively and efficiently to events, significantly aiding in areas like fall prevention and timely intervention.
Advanced AI-Powered Sound Recognition – Leveraging proprietary AI technology, Earzz accurately identifies and distinguishes between a wide range of specific sounds. This intelligent detection minimizes false alarms and provides meaningful alerts.
Seamless Multi-Room Monitoring – Connect multiple Earzz devices to a single account and configure them all through your intuitive Earzz app. This provides a unified overview for managing monitoring across various residents’ rooms.
Automated Behavioral Anomaly Notes – Earzz automatically runs daily anomaly detection algorithms and sends acoustic monitoring care notes directly to PCS. These notes provide invaluable insights into changes in resident behavior patterns, aiding proactive care planning and improved record-keeping.
Price
To integrate with mCare using Generic API there will be a monthly charge per home. Please refer to your direct contact at mCare to confirm pricing. An order will be then raised to one of the Project Leads that have been set up for your home/organisation. An email will be sent to them with a link to sign and accept the order. Once these steps have been followed the integration set up menu will then appear within
mCare.
Setting Up Generic API for Earzz
Earzz are initially integrating via the Generic API to obtain resident information and send care notes for events recorded on Earzz.
For 3rd parties to integrate successfully with mCare they will require your unique per-care-site key which is generated as part of the Generic API configuration screen. To do this you must be an organisation administrator to access the relevant area of mCare to complete the configuration. This will be any member of staff with the access right of ‘Change communities/sites and organisation customisation’. All access rights are managed by the home/organisation itself, and PCS will not be able to provide these for you.
1) Firstly, navigate to Admin > Organisation Details
2) Once you have clicked Organisation Details you will need to find your care site, which will have a light blue background to identify it. Select the care site with the light blue background. In the example below this would be ‘Kings Bridge’.
3) Once clicking on the care site, you will find on the right side of the screen a section called ‘Integrations’. This is where you start the configuration of the Generic API.
4) To configure the Generic API, you need to find it listed in the Integrations section. If you do not see this, please get in touch with our Support team who will be able to arrange for this to be set up. Click on the icon cog icon to start configuration.
5) After selecting the cog icon, you will be presented with a screen requiring some sections to be completed.
6) Firstly, select the communities which will be using the Generic API integration. You may have training communities listed, however these usually contain data that is not relevant to 3rd party integrations, so simply select your sub communities name and NOT the top community.
7) Now set the access mode from ‘View Only’ to ‘Read and Write’. This sets the integration up as one which will allow care notes to start pulling through once the integration is set up.
8) Click on the Active Services item, and this will then expand to show you a list of available integrations partners that PCS work with using the Generic API.
9) Select the ‘Black Toggle’ on Earzz. This will then turn to ‘Green’ which will enable the integration.
10) Finally set the status of the integration to live by clicking the status option and ensuring it goes from white to green.
11) Press ‘Save’ in the top right corner of the screen.
12) Once you have set up the integration, you will then need to go back and obtain your unique API key for the location you have set up. To do this click on the cog icon again to enter the configuration screen again (you will now see that this appears green as the Generic API set up is now live.
13) Once here you will see that two fields now have unique keys in them. We are interested in the Internal API Key.
Select the key (excluding the “Internal API key” words to the left) and copy it. Once you have this key you will need to provide it to the 3rd party developer you are in dialogue with so they can complete the setup their end. They will enter this API key which will finalise the set up and the integration will then start pulling through information that has been recorded and will appear on mCare in the form of a care note.
How Integration Works with mCare
Resident Information:
Earzz uses the room number of the service user to associate with an Earzz monitor. The room number of the service user must match the Earzz monitor name. For data synchronisation to work, a Earzz monitor must be associated with the service user for care notes, attendance and anomalies to be sent to mCare.
In Earzz App or Dashboard, find the name of the monitor. This will allow you to update this. Within mCare, go to the Service Users profile and click on ‘Edit Details’ underneath their profile picture.
You can then update the room number to reflect what is appearing on Earzz
When updating the room number on either side please wait up to 1 hour for the next scheduled update for the information to be updated.
Recording Notes on Earzz:
Earzz App allows carers to leave a care note for the Earzz monitor. The care note left in the app is immediately sent to PCS if the monitor is associated with a service user. You can follow the instructions below to do this:
1. In Earzz App, go to Event Log screen.
2. Tap on the Add a note button.
3. Select an Earzz monitor with an associated PCS service user.
4. Enter care note content.
5. Tap the Submit button.
6. In PCS, the care note should appear associated with the service user. This usually takes around 10 seconds
If you go to Reports > Care Notes and change the ‘Aspect of Life’ drop down menu to ‘Communication’ and the ‘Action’ drop down menu to ‘Other’. This will load up all the notes recorded from the Earzz app.
Below will be how the care notes appear. It will state that the care note has been sent across from Earzz along with the time the note was recorded. It will not state the staff member that recorded this note.
The above image shows a further break down of the recorded care note sent from the Earzz app. Once these notes have been recorded on Earzz and sent through via the integration these cannot be edited or voided. You will need to ensure that the correct and appropriate information is inputted into these notes for the residents.
Activity Chart
This information will populate into ‘Charts > Activity Chart’ within mCare and will be populated under the ‘Other’ section. It will NOT populate under ‘Reports > Activity Summary’.
Care Notes Populating from mCare to Earzz
As part of the integration Earzz will pull through any care notes recorded on mCare which will then appear on the dashboard. This information will populate around every 20 minutes.
On the Earzz dashboard, go to Data View Overview > Choose the monitor associated with the service user. The number of care notes will appear in the chart/table. A list of care notes will also appear under the chart. This information will populate the care note information and sliders that have been used within the care note that was recorded on mCare. If there is a very long care note that you require to view the information for, then please review this information within mCare directly.
Physical Attendance
On Earzz monitors, there is a physical button that can be used by carer to register physical attendance. When registering a physical attendance, Earzz will also send this attendance record to PCS as a Room Check note.
The care note will pull through to mCare within around 10 seconds. If this information is not populating into mCare, please ensure that the room numbers match exactly on Earzz and on mCare for that service user.
To access the recorded notes for ‘Physical Attendances’ you can go to Reports > Care Notes. Adjust the ‘Aspect of Life’ to ‘Personal Safety & Environment’ and the Action drop down to ‘Check Room’.
The care note will then appear like this:
Environment Chart
This information will also populate under Charts > Environment Chart if you want to view this information within Chart format.
Anomalies
Earzz runs an anomaly detection algorithm every day for the sound events that have occurred in the night before. When there are anomalies detected, Earzz send an acoustic monitoring care note to PCS. The care note is flagged to appear in the hand over report.
To access these care notes you can go to Reports > Care Notes. Change the ‘Aspect of Life’ to ‘Sleeping’ and the ‘Action’ drop down menu to ‘Acoustic Monitoring’.
This is the breakdown of the care note that you will see for these events:
Voiding Care Notes on mCare for Earzz Integration:
It is not currently possible to void care notes which have been sent over via an integration.
Enable Notifications on Earzz App:
Within the Earzz application, Go to ‘Account’ > Notifications > Check Device Settings. You then need to ensure that the toggle is switched on to enable all Earzz Notifications. The device will not need to be unlocked on PCS’s Mobile Device Management system if the devices are locked down with us.
Earzz App
Earzz provide access to their application from the Google Playstore and Apple Store. If the devices are locked down on PCS’s Mobile Device Management system, we can push this to the devices within the home. You will need to request our Support team to do this for you. The background of your device screen will appear blue, similar to the image below if the devices are currently locked down on our MDM.
If the devices you are using are not locked down on our Mobile Device Management system, then you can simply download the app directly from the Google Playstore using this link:
iOS App
Android App:
You will then use the login details to access the app which will be provided by Earzz.
Earzz Contact Details
If you need to contact Earzz directly you can contact them at [email protected]
This is the URL if you require access to the Earzz Dashboard: https://dashboard.earzzmonitors.com