Twin Lakes Retirement Community
Benefits from Implementing SARA and SARA's Positioning System (SPS)
Description
Twin Lakes Retirement Community is located in the heart of Montgomery, Ohio, a charming historic neighborhood just a short drive from the fine arts and dining of downtown Cincinnati. Twin Lakes is a Life Enriching Communities (LEC) property and is affiliated with the West Ohio Conference of the United Methodist Church.
The 62-acre campus features beautiful gardens, winding pathways and serene lakes. Twin Lakes offers villa-style neighborhoods on the north, south and lakeside campuses, manor homes adjacent to the north campus, and apartment living amidst the excitement of the main campus. McKinley Place, offering assisted living and nursing care services, is conveniently located near the Community Center.
Opportunity
Twin Lakes was facing challenges with its outdated emergency response system and began searching for a system that would support its innovative approach known as the “The Way of Wellness.” This philosophy promotes freedom, dignity and a superior level of service. Twin Lakes turned to its trusted IT partner and certified Status Solutions reseller, Prelude Services, for guidance in selecting the right solution for the community.
Solution
Status Solutions’ Situational Awareness and Response Assistant (SARA) was selected and implemented at Twin Lakes. Status Solutions also installed and programmed wireless devices, such as pull cords, wall pendants, plunger cords and mobile pendants. SARA provides alerting to pagers, as well as email and cell phones.
SARA’s Positioning System (SPS) provides caregivers highly accurate location data for mobile duress. The location information provided to caregivers shows the proximity of the mobile pendant user to a fixed location device or virtual point of interest. Status Solutions helped set up and establish points of interest according to Twin Lakes’ requirements.
According to Rick Olano, Twin Lakes’ life safety specialist,”The accuracy SPS provides is a tremendous asset for quickly and easily locating residents in need of help.”
Twin Lakes also utilizes the unique Voice of SARA for broadcast communication. Messages are proactively sent to residents to notify them of certain events or other important information. For example, meals are delivered to many residents at Twin Lakes, and they want to know when the meals will be delivered. SARA is able to call them to let them know what time dinner will arrive and if the kitchen is running behind for any reason. These same messages remind certain groups of residents of programs and events.
SARA has also improved staff communication, sending messages to staff as a "pat on the back" or notification of both emergency and non-emergency events.
Partnership
“We feel better about where we are with IT now - our relationship with Prelude has moved us along the innovation continuum much faster than we could have achieved on our own. We feel that from a vision and planning perspective, we are positioned relatively well today against our competition and other providers. We have a clearer picture of what technology is available and how we can use it to provide better service to our residents.
Prelude has provided us with continuity in planning, implementation, and maintenance. They’re a solid, financially sound business partner that LEC can trust, with a strong understanding of the long term care, faith-based market.
Without this technology partnership, it would be much more difficult and inefficient to evaluate and plan process improvement initiatives; everything becomes a discrete project when you do it alone, and it just takes up too much time and too many resources to do it that way. We are confident that we are positioned well to handle the next level of technology automation that will soon be upon us,” explains Jim Bowersox, CFO, Life Enriching Communities.
