We supported business operational growth for a care home business at a time of crisis.
The healthcare industry has gone through a storm of unseen magnitude in 2020. However, right in the middle of the pandemic, we were able to greatly improve the running of a care home business by delivering cohesive operations across several sites.
Our client’s issues : multiple sites & multiple problems
Our client is a multi-site care home business. When they first contacted us, their communications system was entangled. While the head office was using a cloud based phone system, the care homes were not and 30 ISDNs lines were in use.
This meant that calls could not be diverted from the head office to the homes and vice-versa. It created obvious logistical issues and added unnecessary costs to the business.
On top of that, the care home sites had issues with their broadband. They were all large homes with a download speed of 50 meg that was far from satisfactory for their needs.
They also needed a solution that had the capacity to support analogue handsets used by residents in their rooms as those handsets could not be replaced.
When discussing their multiple needs with our client, we discovered that their existing provider were not able to support their complex set up, nor simplify it. They had neither the technical capacity for that, nor the level of customer service required by this under-pressure business.
In fact, the pandemic had heightened the gap between the care home business needs and the services delivered by their provider. An increase of inbound calls led to logistical issues that their communications provider was unable to cope with.
Our solutions : a unified system
We decided that an on-premises solution was ideal for our clients, linking all the sites by Internet Protocol (IP).
The homes needed to have seamless communication. It was especially crucial during the pandemic as part of the teams were on-site while others were working remotely.
It was just as imperative that our client’s customers’ families received a professional caller experience. Knowing that their call was being dealt with was very reassuring for families calling to check in on their mums, dads or other family members.
We ported all ISDN services to Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) – this is particularly useful as we prepare for the 2025 switch off from BT. We also supplied them with lease lines throughout all of the care homes.
We installed the LG Unified Communications Platform (UCP) which allowed all the residents to keep their existing handsets in their rooms but also provided full Internet Protocol functionality to each member of staff and user in the business.
In short, everyone is now working from one system, including head office. As a result, calls between sites are all connected and the call experience is no different whether the calls are made from inside or outside the business.
iPECS systems are diagnostically checked constantly, and faults are reported to our tech support team instantly. Espria’s SLAs are industry leading, and we ensure that we are remotely monitoring our clients’ systems for a seamless experience.
All sites are connected and can work more cohesively thanks to seamless operations.
The result
Our care home client benefits from seamless, sophisticated, new technology for their communications needs.
