Healthcall vs Ascom, Objective comparison for 2026

You run a Belgian care home of 30 to 150 beds and you are evaluating a nurse call solution. Ascom is often cited as an international reference. Healthcall is the independent Belgian option, designed for care homes in the country. This page compares both approaches factually, without disparagement, to help you choose with full awareness.

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Executive summary

• Ascom is a Swiss group (headquartered in Baar), listed on the stock exchange, present in around forty countries, with a broad catalogue covering hospitals, clinics, nursing homes and care homes. Known range: Myco (carer smartphones), teleCARE IP, Telligence, Unite (workflow middleware).
• Healthcall is published by Groovit SRL in Frasnes-lez-Anvaing, in production since 2017, deployed in around twenty Belgian care homes of 30 to 150 beds (approximately 1,250 residents served). Self-funded, with no external investor.
• Business model: Ascom follows an integrated hardware-software ecosystem logic. Healthcall operates from 50 € excl. VAT per button, with 4 major updates per year included and no migration cost.
• Sovereignty: Healthcall is hosted at a Belgian premium host on a private high-availability cluster, triple database mirroring, native GDPR.
• Healthcall retention: a single loss in 8 years (20 active clients out of 21 installations).

Comparison table

The Ascom cells reflect the typical operation of a large industrial group distributed via a network of integrator partners. Items not publicly published are not extrapolated.

Strengths of Ascom

• Proven multinational: presence in around forty countries, with decades of field experience in demanding hospital environments. Ascom is a name recognised by healthcare IT departments.
• Complete hardware catalogue: from buttons to Myco smartphones, including teleCARE IP stations and Telligence solutions, the offer covers most needs of a large establishment.
• Myco for carers: Myco terminals are ruggedised smartphones designed for clinical use, with battery, ergonomics and ecosystem thought for hospital field work.
• Large-group integration: Ascom is suited to multi-site structures, university hospitals and international care home groups that wish to standardise a single platform at European scale.
• Substantial R&D: the size of the group allows continuous R&D investment, in particular around the Unite middleware and clinical interoperability.
• International presence: active Benelux entity, network of integrator partners, capacity to serve large public tenders.

Strengths of Healthcall

• Independence and Belgian anchoring: published by Groovit SRL in Frasnes-lez-Anvaing, self-funded, with no debt or external investor. No strategic pivot dictated by a distant shareholder.
• Open architecture, no proprietary hardware: you are not locked into a closed catalogue. Compatible sensors and buttons are documented, the API is exposed, integration with your resident record remains possible.
• Pricing transparency: from 50 € excl. VAT per button, 4 major updates per year included, no migration cost. The price is public, not an opaque quote.
• Real retention: a single loss in 8 years. 20 of the 21 care homes installed since 2017 are still active. It is a concrete indicator of service quality and proximity.
• Specialist publisher agility: sole focus on the Belgian care home, no dispersion across ten sectors. Client feedback reaches the product team directly.
• Sovereign hosting: private high-availability cluster at a Belgian premium host, triple database mirroring, native GDPR. Your data remains in Belgium.

When to choose Ascom, when to choose Healthcall

Choosing Ascom makes sense for an international care home group that already operates Ascom hardware at other sites and wants to standardise its platform at European scale, for a large hospital whose clinical flows exceed the scope of a care home, or for an establishment that explicitly needs ruggedised carer smartphones with a complete proprietary ecosystem. In these contexts, catalogue breadth and partner network strength weigh more than publisher proximity.

Choosing Healthcall is coherent for an independent Belgian care home (or a small Belgian group) of 30 to 150 beds seeking a reliable nurse call system, transparent pricing, hosting in Belgium and a directly reachable publisher. The open architecture avoids lock-in on a single hardware catalogue, and the economic model (updates included, no migration cost) clarifies total cost of ownership over the lifetime of the system. If priority is publisher proximity, data sovereignty and budget readability, Healthcall fits better.

Typical use case

Ms Delattre runs a care home of 72 beds in Walloon Picardy. Her current call system, installed around twelve years ago, is no longer maintained and spare parts are becoming hard to source. She considers two paths: a tender with an Ascom integrator, and a Healthcall demonstration.

On the Ascom side, the proposal covers a broad scope (buttons, stations, carer terminals, middleware), with a sequenced deployment schedule and a multi-year maintenance contract. The quote consolidates hardware, licences and integration services.

On the Healthcall side, Ms Delattre receives a readable quote from 50 € excl. VAT per button, with 4 major updates per year included and no migration cost. Hosting is located at a Belgian premium host in Belgium, the data of her 72 residents does not leave the country, and the publisher is reachable in Frasnes-lez-Anvaing, an hour away from her establishment.

For an independent organisation of this size, the question is not which of the two solutions is “the best” in absolute terms, but which corresponds to the operational reality of a care home of 72 beds that has neither a dedicated IT department nor a need for a complete hospital ecosystem. In that case, Healthcall’s publisher proximity and pricing transparency weigh heavily.

Frequently asked questions

Does Healthcall completely replace an existing Ascom installation?

Yes, in most care homes of 30 to 150 beds. Healthcall’s open architecture makes it possible to reuse part of the existing cabling and avoid complete removal. Migration is included (no migration cost), which lifts a classic barrier to change. An on-site audit is necessary to validate feasibility and schedule.

Can Myco-type carer terminals be kept with Healthcall?

Healthcall favours standard market smartphones over proprietary terminals. If your establishment is equipped with Myco terminals, a punctual interoperability scenario can be studied, but Healthcall’s target model relies on non-proprietary hardware to avoid supplier lock-in.

Isn’t Ascom safer because it is larger?

A publisher’s size is not in itself a safety guarantee for a Belgian care home. What matters is data location (Belgium for Healthcall, via Belgian premium host), native GDPR compliance, high availability (triple database mirroring at Healthcall) and the publisher’s ability to maintain service over time. Healthcall documents 8 years of continuous production and a retention of 20 active clients out of 21.

What is the typical budget for a Healthcall project for 72 beds?

The entry price is public: from 50 € excl. VAT per button. The final quotation depends on the number of call points, the building configuration and integrations (resident record, telephony). The 4 major annual updates and migration are included. A detailed quote is provided within 10 days after audit.

Ready to compare against your own brief?

We run Healthcall demonstrations tailored to the size and layout of your establishment. Allow 30 minutes for an online demo, or half a day for an on-site demo in Belgium.

Book a Healthcall demo · Speak to the team in Frasnes-lez-Anvaing

Sources consulted

• Ascom Belgium, official FR-BE site: https://www.ascom.com/fr-be/
• Ascom, nurse call range (Myco, teleCARE IP, Telligence, Unite): group public documentation
• DataForSEO data (April 2026), internal files docs/research-raw/07-competitors/ascom-fr.json and ascom-fr.csv
• Healthcall canonical data (D9), Groovit SRL publisher factual base, Frasnes-lez-Anvaing
• Belgian premium host host (Belgium), Healthcall private cluster infrastructure