Have you been celebrating Senior Center Month? September is dedicated to celebrating how senior centers are changing the aging experience. We are honoring these Aruba customers that are dedicated to using technology to better the lives of seniors in their care homes and health centers.
Preparing for IoT with Lorien Health
The first is Lorien Health Services, based in Maryland, which replaced its legacy wireless network with our Mobile First Network. The new network serves Lorien’s fourteen locations and helps the company fulfill its goal of leveraging the latest in healthcare technology to maximize its residents’ quality of life.
Using approximately four hundred Aruba Access Points, Lorien quadrupled the speed of their Wi-Fi and dramatically improved performance – even in older buildings where they had connectivity failures previously. More importantly, the new network allows Lorien to give nurses and caregivers round-the-clock access to the devices and applications they need to deliver top-notch patient and resident care.
“Our caregivers have more important things to worry about than the Wi-Fi network,” said Michael Bowman, Network Engineer at Lorien Health Services. “With our Aruba WLAN, we finally have a reliable, always-on network, so our staff’s time is spent helping patients and residents, not trying to get connected to the network. Our IT staff can also focus on other tasks now that they don’t have to spend time troubleshooting network issues.”
Cutting Help Desk Calls at Sunnycrest Manor
Another leading senior care customer is Iowa-based Sunnycrest Manor, who needed an infrastructure to boost the health, safety, and well-being of long-term care residents. By implementing a modern wireless and wired network infrastructure from Aruba, they mobilized staff and resident experiences with a network they could depend on.
Today, the business and operational rewards from the new wireless and wired network are extensive. “Before, our computer systems were unresponsive and unreliable,” says Cris Kirsch, BSN, NHA, who serves as Sunnycrest Administrator. “Now, they’re fast and reliable. In addition to better patient care, this significantly improves staff morale.”
What’s more, IT no longer fields challenging Wi-Fi help desk calls. “Previously, Wi-Fi calls required expert diplomacy because people didn’t understand why they could get Wi-Fi in the cafeteria but not anywhere else,” says Nathan Gilmore, IT Superintendent Dubuque County, Iowa, which owns and operates the facility. “Today calls related to Wi-Fi are down by 95 percent.”
Sunnycrest Manor and Lorien Health are both great examples of digital transformations in the senior center industry. Senior Center Month is about creating supportive and innovative communities for older adults, and these customers are using Aruba technology to make that possible.
