We spoke with BASScare’s General Manager for Retirement Living, Edward Xuereb, about working with Vitalcare to implement a Nurse Call system combined with proof of life sensors, to provide complete peace of mind for Morgan Glen Iris assisted living clients and their families.
Read the full interview with Edward below, or watch the case study demonstration video.
What is your name and role at BASScare?
My name is Edward Xuereb and I’m the General Manager for Retirement Living for BASScare.
Tell us about BASScare
BASScare is a not-for-profit organisation that provides services to people in need on all different levels, it has been around for approximately 65 years. BASScare offers quite a number of services these days including residential aged care (to) mainstream retirement living. We recently launched our homecare side of the business, we also do meals on wheels, social support — including affordable housing for people who can’t afford mainstream rentals.
Morgan Glen Iris offers the assisted living retirement model. The service that we provide at Morgan Glen Iris is targeted at an age group of residents that would be in their 80s to early 90s. It’s a model of service for individuals who are pretty much independent but require some level of support.
What was the brief for this project?
One of the challenges that we had, or part of the brief, part of designing or fitting out Morgan Glen Iris is that residents that choose to come and live here don’t want to live in an environment that resembles living in an aged care home, or being in a hospital. Everyone wants the safety and security measures in place, but they want them in a way that doesn’t stand out and complements the surroundings and the fit-out.
The design element or the aesthetics is something that they (other providers) struggled to be able to meet, that wasn’t an issue for Vitalcare. We outlined our requirements, and they (Vitalcare) were able to meet that.
The other attraction to the system is the value adds that are available to residents — to give them more security, more safety (as their support needs increase). So that was another key feature, hence BASScare decided to go with Vitalcare when it came to our Nurse Call Support system here at Glen Iris.
When it came to highlights of the programme, for me personally it was great to see the black plates in the study nooks, which look fantastic, and the vibrant colours used for the push buttons really look great. But overall, it’s the functioning of the system, it works. What Vitalcare promised to deliver, they’ve delivered and the proof is in the usage by our residents.
What were the project goals? What challenge were you trying to solve?
Part of our research into the services, offerings and the infrastructure at Morgan Glen Iris, specifically when it came to nurse call, or alerts that residents can use to draw assistance from staff — one of the things that the model called upon is having a type of sensor that would let us know that there was movement within the apartment, without having to impede on people’s privacy by having to knock on their door to make sure that they’re okay.
It is their home, in aged care (for example) people go in and do night turns, checks and things like that. It’s their home, you just can’t knock and walk into their home. So our sensors are proof of life, or movement sensors, whichever we want to call them, are perfect. We’ve got one in the living room, one in the main bedroom that allows us to know that people are up and moving around. But it gives that sense of security if a tragic event (were to) happen, that someone is going to attend to them, someone’s going to find them. And it gives their family members that peace of mind that someone is going to go in and check-in, not that someone may have unfortunately had a fall or passed away and they’re there on their own for days without anyone noticing that they’re not around or up and moving. That was key to what we were trying to achieve.
We also wanted to incorporate that with a nurse call system, but not the traditional sense that you’d find in a hospital or aged care home. Because the assistance calls get directed to our own staff, Morgan Glen Iris is staffed 24/7, we needed something that was going to work and (be) easy to operate for the staff, but also as easily for the residents that are living here at Morgan Glen Iris.
Morgan Glen Iris is quite a glamorous, well fitted out facility, some people say it emulates a five-star hotel, so we needed to implement the infrastructure, making it seamless so that it incorporated itself into the background of the apartments, allowing the residents to know that help was only a button away or calling out for assistance.
Having a voice plate that allows people to call for assistance even if they’re on the floor is key, and having the ability to have additional voice plates implemented within the apartment as the resident’s needs increase, or they request that, is a bonus, and that is one of the key features that we would look at in our future projects — ensuring that we are able to design buildings that have infrastructure which allows residents to have that security to be able to call for assistance, but again as minimal as possible, or as much as they want to, and Vitalcare gives us that option to do that.
We drew our experience from current systems but we also knew that we wanted a little bit more than what we were currently working with. And through Vitalcare we were able to achieve that.
How did you become aware of Vitalcare?
We became aware of Vitalcare through another contractor that we’ve been working with, and they recommended Vitalcare for their innovative and new features in terms of their product. When it came to evaluating our options, we looked at a number of other service providers, however, Vitalcare through our discussions with their management, stood out very clearly that they were really going to be able to meet what we required.
Another reason that Vitalcare was a preferred supplier for our fit-out is also cost, the costs were reasonable, in line with what we have budgeted for the fit-out. So, apart from delivering on what we required as the infrastructure, the cost of implementation and post-implementation support again suited our ongoing operation from a financial perspective.
Who have you worked with at Vitalcare?
So when it came to working with the Vitalcare team, our initial contact was with Duncan (Ross) and that’s where we worked out the requirements for this project and what Vitalcare could provide for us.
When it came to implementation Dwayne (Jury) is the person we have been working with onsite, about structure implementation, training for our staff, customising our nurse call bells to residents requirements, voice recording and so forth. So it’s been great working with both gentlemen and they’ve been an ongoing support even now six months into the development being open.
What have the project outcomes been so far?
It’s proving itself. Not everyone’s needed to utilise it, but everyone’s aware of it, and when residents do put it into action, the response by staff has been quick — and they’ve been able to attend to people and put their fears at rest.
A standard nurse call system, the ability to sensor movement within the apartment, but also have an option for people to (have) the voice plate implemented — Vitalcare, one-stop package was able to provide all that.
Ultimately in the end what implementation of the Vitalcare system achieved for Morgan Glen Iris is that it met the brief. Four or five years ago the model was built around having some alert system in the apartment that wouldn’t be invasive, that would still provide privacy for the residents living there, and we’ve achieved that.
What are the benefits of this solution?
It is vital in the independence and security that it provides, not only for the resident living here, but also for their family members. We explain that to residents who move into Morgan Glen Iris, that it’s not just a nurse call point in the study nook with a voice plate, that it has the ability to expand by introducing additional devices, which gives them more safety and more security and peace of mind.
So it is clear that we have made the right decision, it’s a system that I think will only evolve as time goes on, and I’m looking forward to us contributing to evolving that system, not just for our benefit, but for any future projects that BASScare takes on, or any other provider.
What are the risks of not having a solution like this?
This risks of not having implemented Vitalcare’s system here at Morgan Glen Iris is that is puts our residents at risk in the situation that they need assistance, that is, if they needed help from experiencing a fall, or they weren’t feeling well, so it was always front and center that Morgan Glen Iris needed to have some sort of infrastructure that allowed residents to be able to alert staff as to when they required assistance with something, but at the same time the most vital thing was that we needed to implement a system that allowed privacy, allowing residents to still live independently — because our tag line is ‘Morgan Glen Iris apartments with service for the independently minded’.
What have been the challenges to implementation and how are they being overcome?
The implementation overall went quite seamlessly, with anything that you implement there are always some challenges from wiring to connectivity, but they weren’t things that weren’t able to be dealt with. The team at Vitalcare have been very patient and have responded to our needs when we’ve had technical issues, or difficulty in set up and so forth. They’ve provided a number of training sessions for the staff as to how they go about setting recordings of voice recognition and setting the timing for our sensors. So all up, there have been minimal challenges and a lot of it has been slightly infrastructure-related that is solvable, if not on the same day within a couple of days.
What have the project highlights or lowlights been for you?
When it came to highlights of the programme, for me personally it was great to see the black plates in the study nooks, which look fantastic, and the vibrant colours used for the push buttons really look great. But overall, it’s the functioning of the system, it works, what Vitalcare promised to deliver, they’ve delivered and the proof is in the usage by our residents.
Lowlights, look if I had to do this all over again I would engage Vitalcare at the beginning of the project.
The overall experience of working with Vitalcare has been very positive. It is a new joint venture, a new journey that we are both going on, from my perspective — individually, and as an organisation we want to be able to be in a position to provide feedback for Vitalcare as to what the industry requires, what our needs are going forward, and getting them to work on those new challenges that allow us again to provide additional benefits, services and tools for our residents to be able to lean upon when they join us here at BASScare, and in particular Morgan Glen Iris.
What is next for BASScare?
In terms of BASScare’s approach, now and into the future, one of our key things is to partner up with contractors and partners that align with what we are trying to achieve as our mission. Our mission at BASScare has always been around looking after people, supporting people, and Vitalcare have the basics that we require to continue to fulfill that mission in terms of looking after people and supporting people.
There will be a number of projects down the line that we will be planning at BASScare, and the idea is to bring Vitalcare on that journey, as Vitalcare continues to evolve. I know that Vitalcare are currently working on other innovative support mechanisms that allow people to live independently, but also know that help or support is only a call or the press of a button away.
Get in touch!
If you would like more information about Vitalcare’s solutions or are interested in joining the team please get in touch.
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