Chambrel at Williamsburg

Successfully Improves Existing Systems with SARA

Description

Chambrel at Williamsburg, a Brookdale Senior Living community, offers unparalleled services and amenities to its residents ranging from Independent Living and Assisted Living to other supportive services, such as medication reminders and assistance with errands.  The friendly, dedicated staff is available around the clock, so the residents find it easy to stay active and engaged.  At Chambrel, the goal is to exceed every expectation.

Opportunity

The staff at Chambrel was looking for a way to extend the life of their existing emergency response system.  The MainStreet Messenger^TM, used in the residents' rooms at Chambrel, is a telephony-based voice emergency response system that uses the resident's telephone line to "report" alarms to the attendant station.  The challenge was that the software based central attendant station, sometimes referred to as the "head end," ran on an outdated operating system and did not offer network or backup options.

Chambrel wanted to update the outdated system without replacing their entire infrastructure, specifically the MainStreet Messenger^TM emergency response system.  They were seeking a solution that would improve their emergency procedures and enable their systems to work more cohesively.

Solution

Chad Deville, Director of Engineering at Chambrel at Williamsburg, comments, "We chose Status Solutions because of the extensive knowledge they possessed regarding the problems that we were experiencing."  Status Solutions replaced the outdated "head end" that received emergency and alert signals with the Situational Awareness and Response Assistant (SARA).  A new interface was built to utilize existing hardware previously used by the outdated system.

Alerts Sent via the voice of SARA

SARA has the ability to send the proper alert or notification based on the action that occurred. Whether the signal is from a mobile pendant, motion sensor, smoke detector, etc., SARA can send voice and/ or text alerts.  The "voice" of SARA can clearly state the appropriate message via community telephones, cell phones, or even home phones. The text alerts can be sent to in-building pagers, community email, and external email.  Residents and staff at Chambrel at Williamsburg are confident that if an accident occurs, the proper staff and emergency services will be notified.

Accessible Resident Information

The central resident database feature within the SARA system tracks resident biographical information and displays the information in the event of an alert in the form of a screen pop-up.  These screen pops appear in the attendant's station when an alert is triggered.  The user is shown the biographical data for the resident initiating the alert, including name, location, medications, conditions, doctors and emergency contact information.  If the workstation is equipped with speakers, the voice of SARA will also indicate the alert

Flexibility for Growth

A key reason why the staff at Chambrel at Williamsburg selected the SARA system is because it provides migration options for moving away from legacy equipment in the future.  They will easily be able to transition to a more current infrastructure better suited to support a large campus based community when they are ready to do so.

Summary

Not only did SARA replace an outdated system and integrate to the existing emergency response system, but it added new capabilities to the community.  Chambrel at Williamsburg now has access to brand new functionality that can enhance their community, and provide a heightened sense of awareness.

Partnership

The ability for alerts to be delivered via voice, instead of only via pager as they were in the past, and a technology environment that is now compatible with the community's network, are the first improvements realized by the staff.  Chambrel at Williamsburg has plans to expand their use of SARA to include other capabilities.

One of the first functions that will be implemented will be automated voice reminders. "Reminders" for community events, scheduled activities, bus departure and medication reminders can be scheduled and automatically sent via phone to designated residents and/ or staff members.  The technology uses a "text-to-voice" capability which is integrated with the phone system.  When a resident receives a reminder, the unique voice of SARA is what they hear when answering the phone or checking their messages.  This is made possible by simply typing any text into the system, and then that exact message is delivered by SARA's voice over the phone.

Another feature of SARA that Chambrel has plans to implement is the motion based check-in component.  This allows for an email to be sent to designated staff members when sensors in the specified residents' rooms detect movement before 10:00AM each morning.  If staff members do not receive the "check-in" message by the pre-determined time, then they know they should go to the resident's room to see if they need assistance.

Chambrel at Williamsburg have developed a strong partnership, according to Chad Deville, "The staff at Status Solutions has always interfaced with Chambrel at Williamsburg in a very professional manner, and we have experienced firsthand that customer service is their top priority."