Three sensors went into the same facility. Here's what an independent test found.
Every contactless sensor's spec sheet promises the same things: full coverage, real-time alerts, reliable insight. So instead of taking anyone's word for it, an independent pilot installed Pontosense alongside two competing systems in the same rooms, at a real US long-term care facility, and let the residents' actual nights settle the argument.
Stronger accuracy, better insight, lower cost
If you only read one section, make it this one. Across every measure tracked, Pontosense came out ahead of the competing systems, and not by a little.
Resulting in less notification fatigue
Enabling reliable staff scheduling
Through coverage & range alone
The largest coverage of any sensor tested
Mounting location matters more than most buyers realize. A single corner-mounted Pontosense sensor covers an entire 6×6m room from edge to edge. Wall-mounted competitors cover a much smaller field by design, which sounds like a minor tradeoff until you remember that a "dead zone" is just a polite term for a corner where a fall could go undetected.
Corner-mounted - full room, no dead zones.
Wall-mounted - leaves both corners uncovered.
Wall-mounted - leaves the far end uncovered.
How does better coverage cut cost?
Per-device pricing is only half the budget conversation. The other half is how many devices you actually need. The analysis modeled it across the facility's 200 one-bedroom suites: because Pontosense's range covers more of each room, it took fewer sensors to cover the same suite.
Four tests, one clear winner
Coverage is easy to see. The harder question is what happens once the sensor is actually running a floor: does it cry wolf, does it miss things, can staff trust what it tells them? Four specific measures were tracked to find out, and each one turned into a real operational difference for the facility.
Fewer false alerts means less notification fatigue and more time on direct care.
Caused by staff presence and everyday movement of resident.
Pontosense increased staff efficiency, reduced alarm fatigue, and gave staff greater confidence in alert accuracy.
Faster, more sensitive detection captures resident activity a delayed system misses.
Captured room visits, bathroom visits, night-time trips and movement during sleep more accurately.
A confirmation delay before registering movement caused resident activity to be missed entirely.
Pontosense's enhanced sensitivity enabled more reliable insight into resident behavior and overall wellbeing.
Accurate sleep timing ensures valid sleep patterns and reliable downstream analytics.
Bedtime and wake events both landed reliably within ideal windows for stable, clinically-aligned detection.
Bedtime accuracy was just 30% (e.g. 3:11 AM), with implausible wake times and ~65% wake accuracy.
Pontosense's reliable sleep-timing data gave staff a trustworthy foundation for every downstream insight.
Continuous tracking captures a full night of sleep patterns that an intermittent system misses.
Generated a stable nightly pattern across all residents, reliable for longitudinal sleep-trend monitoring.
Often recorded "0 hours" and jumped erratically between values, indicating missed sleep detection.
Pontosense's consistent nightly tracking gave staff dependable sleep trends they could act on with confidence.
On average, it took facility staff about 4 minutes to close an alert, from first notification to final feedback. Avoiding the 21 additional false alerts Competitor B generated over the pilot would have saved an estimated 84 minutes, about 1.4 hours, of caregiver time.
Fewer interruptions means more dignity and independence
Cost and accuracy are the numbers that make it into the procurement meeting. But the reason any of this matters is what it's like to actually live there. Fewer false alarms means fewer 2 a.m. door-knocks for someone who was simply turning over in their sleep.
75–80% fewer unnecessary staff interruptions overnight can significantly improve sleep quality.
Residents feel less monitored and more in control of their own space.