Assisted Living Facility increases services provided to residents and enhances staff’s communication tools via a Hybrid Voice Solution
Challenge
Linden Grove Communities offers a continuum of care that includes assisted living, advanced assisted living, memory care, short-term rehabilitation, and skilled nursing. They provide these services throughout multiple locations throughout their local community that they serve. Each of these locations and each of these service offerings bring together a diverse group of individuals that have very different levels of technical knowledge and needs. Linden Grove wanted to update their phone system however, it was imperative that with this transition that they were able to continue to provide the great care and service that they are known for within their community and be able to provide additional services to their residents that they care for. Also, they wanted to provide their staff with the right tools so that they could communicate more efficiently and effectively, allowing them to be able to focus on those that they care for.
Solution
In the beginning of the phone system roll out, the intention was to have only staff and a few short-term rehabilitation residents on the new phone solution. However, after the solution was implemented the needs and services that Linden Grove needed and wanted to provide its residents changed. DataComm Plus provided a unique approach to fit their needs and provide a budget friendly solution.
To accomplish this, DataComm Plus implemented a hybrid voice solution for Linden Grove. We linked all their sites to allow for seamless communication between them. No longer were there issues of trying to figure out which location a particular staff member was working from for the day. The flexibility was there to move about as their job demanded and staff simply called them on the same extension that they were used to no matter where they may be working from that day. Along with the ability to see if they were busy on the phone or available. Under this phone umbrella all their sites were one.
This was great for staff; however, residents only needed an easy-to-use phone where staff could transfer calls to their rooms and where they could have a direct number they could be reached by friends and family. By implementing a hybrid solution residents could have exactly this and easy-to-use phone to make and receive calls.
Most importantly, safety! By implementing this new solution, DataComm Plus gave each resident user their own dedicated phone number. Each of these phone numbers not only shows 911 dispatch the main address that they are calling from but allows for a tag to be added that gives an additional identifier such as room number or specific location. Not only is this provided to 911 dispatch but also a predetermined group of staff receive this information upon 911 being dialed. This allows 911 dispatch to know where to precisely go upon arrival and staff members can quickly react and attend to the situation until emergency dispatch arrives.
“This hybrid approach fits our needs perfectly. It allowed us to provide our staff with the communication tools needed to effectively do their jobs and focus on caring for our residents. More importantly it gave us one more thing that is assisting us with our efforts to continuously improve care throughout our Linden Grove Community.” Mark Sperka – President & CEO of Linden Grove Communities
Benefits
- Connected all locations under one solution – Easy to reach staff members as they travel to different locations
- Hybrid Solution – Provides staff with feature rich solution and residents basic functions to avoid confusion
- Safety – provided precise locations based on extension that dialed 911 to dispatch and alerting staff simultaneously that 911 was dialed.
Summary
DataComm Plus were able to provide a phone system solution that fit the needs of both the employees and residents of Linden Grove. By using a Hybrid approach, it interconnected one system that had IP phones, PC Softphones and Mobile applications for the staff to be mobile between the various locations. Then when the need arose to add the residents, knowing that the system that was previously implemented for staff was overkill, we used our hybrid approach. We provided the residents with the ability to use a basic analog phone to provide the features that were important to them – getting calls transferred to them, making calls, and receiving calls directly. There was no need for them to have some fancy phone that could cause confusion. The solution also provided 911 dispatchable locations for each of its residents on the system. In conclusion, everything allowed Linden Grove to properly deploy a voice solution to its diverse group of users.
