Healthcare facilities are integrating with technology at an unprecedented rate. Reece Webb explores a brand new care home where healthcare and luxurious hospitality
intertwine.
Today’s modern care environment hinges increasingly on technology. Where once there was room for human and clerical errors, pro AV technology has paved the way for a care experience that offers security, comfort, and efficiency.
This is the guarantee at Loveday, which provides tailored dementia and senior care in its properties in London.
Loveday Kensington is a state-of-the-art care home which spared no expense from design to implementation. The home demands the very best for its staff and residents, requiring an AV solution that would offer staff the ability to work efficiently without disturbing their residents unnecessarily in the course of their duties.
Enter Adaptive, a long-trusted partner of their customer, Loveday, Adaptive were brought on board to provide a unique technology-driven solution with a unique acoustic monitoring system at its heart, to uplift the quality and response time of care at the property.
Jonathan White, director of partnerships and programs – care sector, Adaptive, commented: “This client is an existing customer for us. Loveday is a specialist provider of residential care in central London, and we worked with them on their new build in Kensington. They brought us onboard as a tech partner, having us involved with anything that sits on their IP platform, be it AV or IT. This goes all the way through to deployment in the building, as well as how it connects and management support/maintenance.”
Make no mistake, this is no ordinary care home. Loveday's property offers the perfect blend of healthcare and premium hospitality, providing a tailored approach to care that required an equally sophisticated healthcare technology system to enhance the experience. Equipped with luxurious suites, restaurants, and a cinema area, even the residents are referred to as members, reflecting the exclusive nature of this unique care residence.
“This is a luxury new build,” says White. “The client is passionate about enhancing the lives of their members and their families as they progress through later life. Loveday have a culture of uncompromising commitment to care at the very best level, and they wanted the best assistive technology available to help their caregivers and care staff work a lot smarter and deliver the very best quality of care.”
Many care homes have expanded on their pro AV offerings in recent years amid a trend of ongoing digital transformation, and the Kensington Square residence was no exception. Working with Adaptive over a period of time, both the client and integrator had an idea of which concepts could be executed well to meet the care home’s demanding needs.
“This is a high-end property and the level of care has to be absolutely exemplary,” explains White. “The expectation for the décor, activities, and food is sky high. There is a lot of dedicated one-to-one care and that quality is high.”
Intelligent Privacy
Loveday Kensington’s 40 suites are one-of-a-kind, reflecting the highest level of comfort both in its décor and in its technological implementation.
Adaptive was brought in to equip each member’s room with a smart solution to the traditional nurse call system used in care homes, with the aim of improving resident privacy and staff productivity. To accomplish this, Adaptive installed an innovative concept that is designed to improve the response time and quality of life for both members and care staff, potentially making the difference between life and death in an emergency.
Adaptive turned to CLB’s acoustic monitoring system which monitors in-room sound to allow care staff to provide the right assistance at a moment’s notice. Sensors are mounted in a resident’s bedroom, and should a concerning noise be heard, an alert is automatically sent to care staff to deal with it accordingly. This means that care staff will only enter a resident’s room when needed.
White says: “Our nurse call system and acoustic monitoring system is designed to keep in line with the high-end décor, while providing the functionality that they needed. Even with such a high-end property, there are still the same challenges that care staff need to address.”
Messages to respond to an alert are sent to Samsung Xcover4 mobile handsets, which are provided to all staff, allowing any nearby staff to be alerted and react to an issue as it unfolds.
White explains: “A lot of nurse call systems are reactive, so you’re reliant on interaction from the service user. They have to push a button or pull a cord, but we try to be as preventative as possible. This means that the people who do not have the physical or cognitive ability to interact with nurse call become more reliant on periodic check ins, requiring care givers to go into rooms to make sure that they are okay. These checks can be disruptive and wake people up, which has a detrimental effect on people of an advanced age or for people living with dementia; this is why we installed an acoustic monitoring system, it was an integral piece of the puzzle for Loveday Kensington.
“Staff can access the nurse call on an app using a mobile device, which could also have your profile to access the building and the ability to make phone calls [to emergency services], so we’re consolidating all of these different uses with one device.”
Each of the home’s 40 suites are equipped with the CLB acoustic monitoring and intelligent nurse call system, with additional monitoring devices deployed in communal areas for rapid response time.
For entertainment purposes, each room is equipped with a 43-in Sony Bravia 4K display, whilst the property’s numerous common areas are deployed with 55-in displays. The rooms also feature Avigilon in-room IP cameras for the purpose of unobtrusive monitoring during potential emergencies.
White: “There’s no recording with the in-room cameras. The acoustic system gives you ears, but these cameras give you the eyes. Once a nurse call alert is generated, and you have consent in place, you can access the live feed of the room to see what’s going on to make a quick, informed assessment as to what care may be required.
“An example would be members who could need to use the bathroom at night, but do not wish to be a bother to the staff by using the call system. We can catch them exiting the bed with the acoustic system and speak to the member through a two-way communication system [to see if they require assistance]. With the cameras, you only look in when there’s a reason to look, but it cuts down response time and helps create a safer and more responsive service.”
Adaptive covered all bases by taking care of the facility’s Wi-Fi deployment, making sure that all devices on site have sufficient coverage 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
A Panasonic IP telephony system is also installed for members to use when calling out to friends, family, or even internal calls throughout Loveday Kensington. Adaptive even went as far as to supply all the PCs, laptops, tablets, and servers, along with mobile device management security.
White adds: “As soon as somebody presents themselves to reception, the 2N smart intercom system can be used to control entrance and exit of the building. For out-of-hours access, we’ve installed touchscreen panels at all the nurse stations on each floor, allowing staff to let people in once the smart intercom system is activated. This system can also access the property’s security gates for visitors or staff who are driving in.”
Adaptive spent six months on site delivering this key residential care home in the heart of central London. White explains: “This facility is a new build in central London, so making sure that we could keep to time and task was very important. We had to keep as close to the client brief as we could while working alongside a lot of other contractors.
“We’re a clean trade, so we come in relatively late when most of the project is done. We’re still working around a lot of other trades at the late stage [of the project], so delivering exactly what we were asked to do was our key focus at all times.”
Today, Loveday Kensington is up and running, with Adaptive going the extra mile by providing 24/7 365 support and maintenance, accessible through a helpline or email no matter the time of day or year. White clarifies: “We can troubleshoot a lot of the equipment remotely, diagnosing and fixing faults from a remote location. Anything that falls outside of that, we make sure that the skilled on-site facility management team can work with us to diagnose a problem that physically needs checking, and we can re-commission anything remotely ourselves.”
Adaptive will continue to work closely with Loveday on new builds, setting the benchmark for future installations with the client.
White closes: “We were very proud when Loveday Kensington opened. When you first come in and everything is ready for the first residents, that’s the real highlight for me. The care and wellbeing of their members is at the heart of everything that Loveday do, so seeing all the things that we planned brought to life was fantastic. When you see the staff and residents seeing the benefits of what we installed, there’s no better feeling. It’s a testament to the installation that we’ve been able to keep with the client brief and now this template is being rolled out to other sites.”