Chicago’s Park Place of Elmhurst Standardizes on SARA Emergency Alert System

Status Solutions announced that its SARA emergency alert system (Situational Awareness and Response Assistant) has been deployed at Park Place of Elmhurst near Chicago with the help of ProviNET Solutions. Park Place of Elmhurst is the sixth Providence Life Services community that has  standardized on SARA since Status Solutions was selected as a vendor of  choice in 2009 for its knowledge of the senior living and healthcare  industries, CTI and software development expertise, and customer  references.

All 12 Providence Life Services communities eventually will use SARA,  which is an automated alerting engine that integrates life safety,  security and environmental controls, turning alarms from these disparate  systems into managed voice and text alerts for delivery to designated  communication devices, including landlines, cell phones, pagers, emails,  computer screens, PA systems, etc. SARA includes a wireless sensor  network, integration tools for existing alarm and communication systems,  and mass notification in one powerful platform. With the situational  awareness SARA provides, Park Place will have a wide view of what’s  happening in and around its campus to enhance resident safety and  security.

Park Place is a 12.5-acre community with 173 independent living  units, which opened in February 2012. Its assisted living area with 86  units, including 20 memory support units and health center, is scheduled  to open in the June-July 2012 timeframe. SARA will be used throughout  the campus for nurse call and mobile duress. The solution, which can be  customized to meet the life safety, security monitoring, environmental  awareness and mass notification requirements of any facility, also will  be integrated with the community’s EMR system so resident information  will populate other business-critical systems automatically, including  nurse call, wander management, etc.

“Park Place has been constructed as a ‘model’ community with  best-of-breed technologies to create a five-star experience for our  residents,” explains Don Engelsman Park Place’s executive director.  “Resident safety and security is of utmost importance when it comes to  ensuring that five-star lifestyle, so SARA will be used for emergency  alerting in addition to integrating other safety, security and  environmental systems for complete situational awareness.” For example,  Park Place will integrate SARA with its access control system and use it  to monitor the temperature of its refrigeration units and swimming  pool.

ProviNET Solutions, the technology division of Providence Life  Services, vetted a number of systems before deciding to standardize on  SARA, according to Carl Goodfriend, ProviNET CIO. “We selected SARA  because it integrates with a lot of different systems and didn’t require  us to replace existing alarm or communication systems in order to  leverage its capabilities. In fact, we’ve been able to simplify and  centralize the management of all of our systems and in many cases extend  the ROI for each because of Status Solutions’ expertise in computer  telephony integration and support for different protocols,” Goodfriend  says.

Goodfriend goes on to explain that ProviNET is exploring the addition of the CATIE (Communication and Access to Information Everywhere) multimedia application for two-way communication and MIMI (Motion into Meaningful Information) for mobile health monitoring because he sees them as critical pieces of  a “CCRC without walls” strategy. “CCRCs, including Park Place, are  looking for ways to extend their brick-and-mortar services to the  community at large, and SARA’s sister [situational awareness] solutions  could help Providence Life Services and our other clients deliver  important social and telehealth benefits.”

As reported by Status Solutions

About ProviNET Solutions
ProviNET Solutions is a full-service IT company that  offers a comprehensive spectrum of technology solutions, including IT  consulting, support, training, and implementation, as well as technical  assistance, software integration, website design, SEO and hosting services. ProviNET supports a variety of Skilled,  Independent, and Assisted Living communities as well as non-healthcare  clients throughout the country and is headquartered in Tinley Park,  Illinois. Visit us at www.www.provinet.com.

About Providence Life Services
Providence Life Services (formerly known as Rest Haven Christian  Services) is a not-for-profit organization that has provided residential  accommodations and services to Chicago-area seniors since  1912. Providence Life Services currently operates 12 communities  throughout Illinois, Michigan and Indiana, serving the needs of more  than 1,500 residents. Visit us at www.providencelifeservices.com.

About Status Solutions
Status Solutions provides situational awareness solutions for life  safety, security, environmental monitoring and mass notification. Our  mission is to defeat ignorance-based loss with software that delivers  real-time information about potential threats to life, property,  business and convenience. With Status Solutions’ innovations, key  individuals, select groups or entire populations can be made aware of  any situation occurring in a single facility or across an entire  enterprise to mitigate risk. With situational awareness, the right  information gets to the right people on the right devices in real time  for faster, more efficient response. Our solutions include the SARA  automated alerting engine, the MIMI mobile health-monitoring system, and  the CATIE multimedia application for two-way communication and  self-service.

Status Solutions 1180 Seminole Trail, Suite 440 Charlottesville, VA 22901 (434) 296-1789