COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEM AND PROTOCOL FOR MEDICAL ENVIRONMENT

A communications system and protocol are described for wirelessly interco nnecting a pair of bed and wall units that communicate the patient informati on, including bed exit alerts, from the patient supporting equipment to the hospital nurse call system. A linking procedure is provided for establishing a communications link to interconnect the pair of units, wherein the commun ications link fails upon detection of a third communications device simultan eously undergoing the link attempt mode. In one embodiment, the system provi des for advanced collision detection by monitoring corruption of the end-of- packet byte within the periodic check- in message sequences between the link ed units to prevent data corruption and future collisions. To ensure prompt interconnection of units, embodiments of the invention provide for a link re minder to alert the health care provider to initiate the steps for linking t he bed and wall units whenever two or more unlinked units are in proximity.