Patent ID: 8392747

Claim:
A healthcare communication system comprising: a first plurality of computer devices operable as a nurse call system, the first plurality of computer devices having core nurse call functionality, and a second plurality of computer devices communicatively coupled to the first plurality of computer devices, the first plurality of computer devices being interconnected logically and/or physically in a tiered architecture arrangement to provide fault isolation among the tiers so that faults occurring in computer devices of one tier don't affect the operability of computer devices in other tiers and so that faults occurring in any of the second plurality of computer devices don't affect the core nurse call functionality of the first plurality of computer devices, wherein the first plurality of computer devices have the core nurse call functionality residing on an embedded computing platform, at least one of the first plurality of computer devices has a graphical display screen, and a second plurality of computer devices operable to provide the first plurality of computer devices with additional functionality via software plug-ins that are transmitted to the first plurality of computer devices.