The Nurse Call Standard You Complied With No Longer Exists
For 27 years, "compliant" meant one thing: your system met AS 3811:1998. That standard has been withdrawn.
In its place sits AS 3811:2026, published on 5 June 2026. It isn't an update. The committee threw out the 1998 document and wrote a new one from a blank page. Even the name changed — from "Hard-wired patient alarm systems" to "Hard-wired consumer communication and alarm systems for use in healthcare facilities."
So here's the uncomfortable question for anyone running a facility today: if your nurse call system was specified, sold and signed off against a standard that no longer exists, what exactly are you compliant with?
What AS 3811:2026 actually is
The old standard described a bell and a light. Press a button, a light comes on, someone comes. That was the whole job.
The new standard describes a networked clinical system. It reaches into cybersecurity, data governance, real-time location, reporting, interoperability, backup power and system resilience — areas the 1998 document never mentioned because they didn't exist in a nurse call context.
Two things haven't changed. Core life-safety functions must still be hard-wired — a cut network cable or a server crash can't be allowed to silence a call for help. And the system still has to be dependable above all else. What's new is everything built around that core.
The shifts that matter to you
Scope widened. It now covers hospitals, residential aged care, mental health units and disability care — not just hospital wards.
Wireless is now recognised. The standard formally accepts a hybrid model: a hard-wired core with ancillary wireless devices. Pendants and wireless call points are no longer a grey area.
Resilience got specific numbers. A single point of failure can't be allowed to take down more than one ward or wing. Core life-safety functions carry a 99.999% uptime expectation. The system needs a fall-back mode that keeps working through an IT or power outage.
Faults have to announce themselves. The system must detect a failure, show the user a visual and audible fault indication within 30 seconds, log the failure within five minutes, and dispatch a verified alert to your maintenance team — then escalate if no one responds.
Cybersecurity is now in scope. Multi-factor authentication, role-based access, least-privilege controls, penetration testing and alignment to the ASD Essential Eight. None of this appeared in 1998.
Location awareness moved to the centre. Room-level RTLS, geofenced wandering alerts for residents, and automatic staff-presence detection that records the duration and frequency of staff interactions.
Reporting is mandatory. The system has to aggregate data and produce configurable reports, exportable to PDF and CSV.
Read that list again as a facility manager. Every line is something an assessor can now point to.
What compliant, audit-ready operation looks like
Under the old picture, you proved your system worked by pressing a button and watching a light. Under AS 3811:2026, you prove it with evidence: a fault log that pinpoints which call point failed and when, a UPS that carries the system for at least 30 minutes, an access log that shows who opened a resident record, and a care-minutes report you can export while the assessor waits.
The gap between "it still beeps" and "it can prove what happened" is where most legacy systems now sit. A serial-bus system with a single hidden room controller fails the segmentation rule on day one — one controller dies, a whole wing goes dark. A system with no user accounts fails the access-control rule. A system that logs a button press but not when a carer reached the resident can't substantiate a single care minute.
Before you assume your current system clears the new bar, put your provider on the spot.
The questions to ask your current provider
On the standard itself
Does the system conform to AS 3811:2026, and will you confirm that in writing? (AS 3811:1998 is withdrawn — a certificate against it means nothing now.)
Are core life-safety functions hard-wired, with wireless used only for ancillary devices?
On resilience
If one controller or one link fails, how much of the facility goes down? (The answer must be no more than one ward or wing.)
Is there a fall-back mode that keeps calls working through an IT or power outage?
Is there a UPS, and does it carry the system for at least 30 minutes?
Does the system fail over automatically, or does it wait for a technician?
On fault detection
When a call point dies, does the system tell me which one, and how fast?
Does it warn the user at the point of failure within 30 seconds, and log the fault within five minutes?
Does it send a verified alert to maintenance, and escalate if no one acts?
On cybersecurity and data
Is access role-based, with multi-factor authentication and automatic log-off?
When were you last penetration-tested, and do you align to the ASD Essential Eight?
Where is resident data stored, is it encrypted, and can it be anonymised for reporting?
On location and evidence
Is your RTLS room-level accurate?
Does it record when a staff member actually entered the room, or only when a button was pressed?
Can residents at wandering risk be geofenced for safety?
On reporting and integration
Can I export call events, response times and care minutes to PDF or CSV, myself, without a service call?
Does it integrate with our building management system, messaging (phones, apps, SMS, paging, email) and clinical systems, or does it stand alone?
Can staff carry a single device for calls, alerts and location, or are you asking us to issue three?
If your provider hesitates on half of these, you've found your exposure before an assessor does.
Where this lands
The reason AS 3811:2026 reads the way it does is that networked, evidence-producing systems already exist, the standard caught up to them. Xacom's Nurse Call platform is one of them.
On Xacom’s next-gen Nurse Call, every master call point is an individually addressable IP device over PoE, with heartbeat monitoring and retry logic, so a dead point announces itself instead of failing in silence. The architecture is segmented and backed by redundant wireless pathways. Inbuilt RTLS gives room-level accuracy - which is what lets Minutes of Care start when a carer physically enters the room via an RTLS pendant, not when a button gets pressed, so your care-minute evidence reflects care that was actually delivered. Data is encrypted with audit logs and role-based permissions. Compliance reports export to PDF or Excel on demand. It integrates with whatever you already run and reuses your existing CAT5/CAT6 cabling instead of forcing a rip-out. Support is local, Australian, around the clock.
Put simply: the checklist above isn't a wish list. It's a description of a system built to the standard as it now stands.
Where to start
Send the questions above to whoever maintains your nurse call system today. Their answers tell you where you stand.
Then see what a system built for AS 3811:2026 looks like: xacom.com.au/xacom-nurse-call.
The pay-off: A withdrawn standard doesn't grandfather your system in. It just means the next assessor is holding a newer ruler than the one you were measured against.re...