SOURCE: AeroScout
AeroScout Wi-Fi RTLS Solutions Contribute to Laguna Honda’s Goal of Creating the Safest Possible Environment for Residents of Its New, 780-Bed Facility
SAN FRANCISCO, CA–(Marketwire – September 21, 2010) – Pebble Project National Conference — AeroScout, the leading provider of Unified Asset Visibility for the healthcare industry, today announced that Laguna Honda Hospital & Rehabilitation Center has deployed AeroScout’s Patient Safety, Staff Safety and Asset Tracking solutions at its state-of-the-art skilled nursing facility set to open later this year. The AeroScout solutions are part of Laguna Honda’s initiative to create the safest possible environment, while providing its residents with an open lifestyle that fosters community and independence. At a conference today hosted by the Center for Health Design on the latest advances and best practices in healthcare design, Laguna Honda will showcase its new facility, including its AeroScout Wi-Fi RTLS implementation, as a model for leading organizations from around the country to learn from and emulate.
Operated by the San Francisco Department of Public Health, Laguna Honda Hospital & Rehabilitation Center provides skilled nursing and rehabilitation services to a diverse, safety net population. Located on a 62-acre campus, it is one of the largest acute care skilled nursing facilities in the United States and represents extensive commitments by the city to therapeutic care for seniors and adults with disabilities.
In 2003, the city broke ground on the construction of a complete replacement of the main Laguna Honda facility. The vision for the new 500,000 square-foot facility was to provide housing and community-style living, with the highest level of independence, for Laguna Honda’s hundreds of residents by constructing the most technologically advanced, efficient, flexible, humane and natural facility in the world. In planning the project, Laguna Honda incorporated many advanced concepts derived from evidence-based design, recognizing the significant benefits it would have on the health and quality of life of residents.
Assisted by AeroScout’s Professional Services team, Laguna Honda implemented AeroScout’s Patient Safety solution at the new facility, including three residential buildings, to provide an additional level of safety for residents with cognitive impairments, such as Alzheimer’s. The potential for people with advanced dementia to put themselves in harm’s way make AeroScout’s RTLS solutions a particularly important part of Laguna Honda’s quality of care.
“Our goal is to provide the safest and most therapeutic environment, while encouraging independence and freedom of movement across the 62-acre campus,” said Larry Funk, Associate Administrator at Laguna Honda. “AeroScout impressed our selection committee with its unparalleled experience in the healthcare market and was the overwhelming choice of the participants. In addition, the intuitiveness of their many applications made it the unanimous choice among our clinician panel.”
With the consent of residents and their families, people who need an additional level of safety will wear AeroScout Wi-Fi Wristband Tags, which allow caregivers to determine their location quickly. In three residential buildings, the AeroScout solution is integrated with the Access Control systems, and it also triggers voice commands if residents approach certain exit points. The verbal messages remind residents in their native language not to leave their household or neighborhood by themselves. If a resident continues alone beyond these points, appropriate caregivers receive alerts via VoIP phones, pagers and AeroScout’s Instant Notifier application, which delivers pop-up windows on workstations.
In addition to displaying the location of the resident, the AeroScout solution shows a photo to help caregivers identify the person in need of assistance. The AeroScout solution leverages Laguna Honda’s Cisco Unified Wireless Network, and because the system is linked to the City of San Francisco’s network infrastructure, Laguna Honda has future plans to locate residents who need help anywhere in the city where network coverage is available, such as at bus and train stations.
Laguna Honda has also implemented AeroScout’s Staff Safety solution to help provide the safest possible environment at the new facility. The solution includes 1,400 Wi-Fi Badge Tags with call buttons, which are worn by caregivers. When a button is pressed, the solution routes notifications or emergency alerts to the appropriate team members.
Laguna Honda is currently deploying an additional AeroScout application to help with operational goals of improving the efficiency of asset management, increasing equipment utilization and ensuring that clinicians have the medical equipment they need when and where it is needed. AeroScout’s Healthcare Asset Tracking solution will help Laguna Honda staff monitor and optimize 3,000 pieces of critical equipment, including specialized beds, EKG machines, crash carts, diagnostic units and portable x-ray machines.
“Laguna Honda created a remarkable design achievement that will not only benefit its residents and community, but also sets the standard for patient safety and care that benefits the entire healthcare industry,” said Gabi Daniely, Vice President of Marketing and Product Strategy at AeroScout. “Laguna Honda has incorporated AeroScout’s Patient Safety solution into its business processes and integrated with its information systems, resulting in a seamless solution. We are proud to be part of this nationally-acclaimed project and to help this important organization in our local area meet its goals.”
About Laguna Honda Hospital & Rehabilitation Center
Laguna Honda is an acute care skilled nursing and rehabilitation center owned and operated by the San Francisco Department of Public Health. It provides personalized, culturally competent services to a diverse safety net population of 780 residents. Among its innovative programs are:
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An award-winning restorative care program
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The San Francisco Bay Area’s only HIV/AIDS skilled nursing program
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Monolingual care in Chinese and Spanish
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A safe and comfortable environment for people with Alzheimer’s and other dementias
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Rehabilitative services that include physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, and audiology
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Programming for adults with developmental disabilities
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An in-house hospice
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Care that combines medical and social support for people coping with the effects of stroke, traumatic brain injury and multiple sclerosis
About AeroScout
AeroScout is the market leader in Unified Asset Visibility solutions. Customers improve operational efficiency using AeroScout products that leverage standard Wi-Fi networks to track and manage the location, condition and status of mobile assets and people. AeroScout’s global customer base consists of leading hospital, manufacturing and logistics organizations, including many of the Fortune 500. The company invented the first Wi-Fi-based Active RFID tag, and today is widely recognized as leading the market in number of deployments and tags shipped. Headquartered in Redwood City, California, AeroScout has offices in Europe, the Middle East, Asia, Australia and Latin America. For more information, please visit www.aeroscout.com.
AeroScout is a registered trademark of AeroScout, Inc. Information is subject to change without notice.