IN GOOD HANDS
“ We ’ re a nursing home company that doesn ’ t like nursing homes ,” says Lou Grimmel , CEO of Lorien Health Systems . A pretty powerful statement for a CEO of one Maryland ’ s top healthcare systems comprised of nine nursing homes , five assisted living homes and a rehab facility . With a sterling reputation and nearly 40 years in business , Grimmel knows that in order to care for an aging population and maintain growth and vision for Lorien , he has to make the nursing home and assisted living experience different — more personal , more like home .
To achieve this , he introduced several new initiatives in order to keep family members in the loop and improve care . One such improvement is TeleHealth , the newest service from Lorien that works using motion sensors . The sensors track pertinent information about the patient and take into account their daily activities to proactively alert a staff member when something may be awry .
“ The future of caring for the fast aging population really hinges on technology and using the right equipment to be able to support technology ,” says Grimmel . But in order to achieve new levels of individualization and care like TeleHealth , he knew he had to upgrade their aging out IT infrastructure and software .
Identifying the Problem
Before the IT upgrade , staffers used to lament the fact that the infrastructure was plagued by slow or no access to digital records , dropped signals and poor equipment synching — all necessities to maintain a high standard of care and comply with government mandates like the move to electronic health records ( EHR ). What ’ s more , wireless reception was poor , nurses were bumped off systems and interference from third parties hindered progress and adequate care of the facilities most important assets — its residents . Grappling with a small IT team to support 11 sites , the team turned to one of their vendors for help .
Diagnosing the Issue
Aruba HPE , a trusted partner of Lorien Health Systems , became aware of the company ’ s poor vendor communication and shoddy on-hand support and quickly introduced the company ’ s executive team to Carousel last January .
“ During a purchase with Aruba , that team sent Carousel out and that ’ s when our renaissance began . They looked at our system and told us the good , the bad and the very bad ,” Grimmel says , with a chuckle .
“ We did our best to build what we thought was needed ,” he explains , commenting on the previous IT environment . “ But we didn ’ t know what we didn ’ t know .” And what they didn ’ t know was that their current environment wouldn ’ t allow them to take their business to the next level .
After evaluating Lorien Health Systems ’ current IT environment using heat maps