Background
Sunnycrest Manor is a long-term care facility that overlooks the Mississippi River on the bluffs of Dubuque. It serves residents with intellectual disabilities who also have financial needs; it’s also one of the first community-based intermediate care facilities established for people with these types of care requirements.
Sunnycrest Manor’s Home & Heart program – an innovative, resident-centered care initiative – has become a model example for other facilities of a nursing home culture change that honors each resident’s lifelong preferences, patterns, and lifestyles.
CustomerNeeds
CEC designed and installed Sunnycrest Manor’s original nurse call system several years ago and continued to provide support through the years. When the outdated system finally started to become unreliable, however, staff members were interested in finding a new nurse call solution that would not only be reliable and dependable, but would also allow in-house IT and maintenance staff to make many of the adjustments and break/fix repairs themselves. “I was losing sleep over the previous system,” explains Nathan Gilmore, Dubuque County’s IT superintendent. “I was awake at 3am worrying about what tomorrow would hold.”
The nursing staff was also becoming increasingly frustrated with system reporting issues, frequently having to call IT for help to run the reports and gather the data they needed.
Sunnycrest Manor shopped around for possible nurse call solutions, but ultimately came back to CEC. “CEC knows our special circumstances and the reputation of Sunnycrest Manor in the Dubuque community,” explains Cris Kirsch, Sunnycrest Manor administrator. “That piece matters: knowing that your vendor understands the intangible significance of your institution.”
Solution
After CEC’s transition to becoming Iowa’s Rauland distributor, the idea of designing and installing Rauland’s Responder solution was explored to improve resident safety and quality of life.
With this new healthcare communications solution in place to drive productivity and resident/staff satisfaction levels, Sunnycrest Manor now has:
- A nurse call system that integrates with a ShoreTel phone system to improve patient care communication
- A robust, easy-to-use reporting system that gathers data for informed decision-making about patient care
- Fast maintenance and system adjustments that can be done in-house, with the ability to easily remove and replace units as needed
- Time savings and reduced stress levels for nursing and IT staff – nurses can generate reporting data without help, which allows IT to focus on other technology initiatives
- Increased confidence from residents in knowing that, when they turn on their call light, it will reach the right people and they’ll get the help they need quickly
- Improved interdepartmental communication in situations that require immediate assistance
“CEC knows what they’re talking about. They understand the seriousness of healthcare technology. With this new nurse call system in place, we no longer see in resident council minutes that call lights aren’t working. During this project, on many days, the installation staff stayed here until 1am or 2am to make sure everybody was safe.”
