Using Technology to Provide Enhanced Amenities

The Highlands at Wyomissing provides not only stunning amenities, engaging activities, and endless opportunities to enjoy senior living, but also comprehensive acute care, post-acute rehabilitation, behavioral, and occupational health services to the community of Berks and adjoining counties. For more than 25 years The Highlands at Wyomissing has been focused on enhancing the lives of senior adults. That means when you make your move to The Highlands at Wyomissing, there is no worry of moving again; instead, The Highlands at Wyomissing Staff and Leadership make a promise to their Residents that they will be there when they need it.

The Residents of the Highlands enjoy amenities such as a fully equipped fitness center, indoor swimming pool, computer center, 5,000-volume library, art studio, billiard room, woodworking shop and a putting green. The Highlands also offers a choice of three dining venues, many social events, a full service on-site bank, transportation and educational enrichment opportunities.

We need to adjust & evolve in an effort to stay relevant. 

Kevin P. DeAcosta, President

Issues

 A Renewed Focus – Hospitality AND Healthcare – While the health and well-being of every resident at The Highlands at Wyomissing is paramount, this community wanted to provide those services in a manner more in-line with the Hospitality industry and less “clinically.” In addition, like many Continuing Care Retirement Communities, The Highlands at Wyomissing was seeing a tremendous surge of Residents who are more and more technologically savvy. This equates to a more strategic and technical focus on how The Highlands at Wyomissing markets itself, brands itself, and readies itself for the technology needs of its future residents. The Highlands was interested in a strategic assessment of their marketability, internal processes, communication, IT service delivery and support, staff development, and IT infrastructure items, such as: facility-wide wireless accessibility, improved procurement process, enhanced capabilities of the audio visual, cable television, smart television, network and facility security, as well as building automation systems.

Solution 

The Highlands engaged with Weidenhammer to provide a strategic assessment of its current state within the areas of infrastructure, security, systems, processes and marketability. Our approach included interviewing all members of the leadership team, management and service staff. Additionally, our consultants conducted a network and security assessment to produce technical details surrounding the current state of their IT infrastructure and systems. 

Strategy First 

Weidenhammer’s strategy-first approach is embedded into every stage of our engagements. Our internal interviews with the Highlands staff focused on current and future needs, processes and technological concerns of each department. Additionally, we extended our fact-finding efforts by conducting network and security assessments. These assessments focused on the current state of information technology. The assessment provided The Highlands at Wyomissing with a snap-shot view of where they stood with regards to network, servers, wireless, applications, systems, and security vulnerabilities. Overall, Weidenhammer was able to provide The Highlands at Wyomissing with a SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) that outlined areas of stability and areas primed for potential growth. 

Building a Foundation 

Following industry trends, The Highlands expressed an interest in building a more robust network to enable its increasing number of tech-savvy residents, empowering them with the necessary bandwidth and access to devices to which they have become accustom to using. Our consultants worked with their IT staff to examine their network, servers, bandwidth and other capabilities to build an IT strategy roadmap. Our roadmaps included detailed budgets, methodologies, industry best-practices, and security considerations. This roadmap was the first step in building a foundation that supported the technology needs of a growing and evolving organization. 

Continuing the Quality of Service 

We examined the service quality and delivery currently employed by The Highlands, as well as their relationship with critical service providers and partners. We helped them evaluate their technology strategy, trends, and processes to review how it aligned with The Highlands’ goals and objectives. Our consultants maintained compliance with many of the regulations, such as HIPAA, that are required by health care and continuing care retirement communities. 

Evolving Market & Marketability 

Part of the focus of Weidenhammer’s assessment was to examine areas of improvement that would enhance the marketing process, marketability, and overall market value of The Highlands. Our strategy was to execute programs that enhance the Resident experience of key systems. For staff, this meant improved applications and access to technology resources that improved productivity. For Residents, we focused our attention on systems that impacted their daily life while living or visiting The Highlands. This included dining systems, digital signage and kiosks that permitted residents to obtain information and register for events, meal selections, reservations and trips, in real-time. 

This real-time, digital-first approach has become a basic necessity for organizations like The Highlands with the increased number of seniors with more technical skills and needs. The seniors are coming from lifestyles that have embraced technology, such as using mobile devices and tablets for email, reservations, surfing the web and the regular use of computers and laptops. Our consultants provided an assessment and roadmap that helped The Highlands implement a technology strategy designed to engage these resources and provide the ability for residents to digitally make reservations for events, obtain community information and order food in their dining facilities. A strategic byproduct of these proposed enhancements was the ability to link these applications to back-office systems that aid in the procurement of supplies, food, transportation and event coordination. 

Weidenhammer – Consulting for the Future 

Our efforts continue – The Highlands continues to engage Weidenhammer with the implementation and management of the above-mentioned initiatives. We coordinate with departments, as well as the community, to help communicate and promote these changes throughout the organization. Our consulting approach is based on industry practices, industry frameworks and best practices, such as ITIL (Information Technology Information Library), ISO 20000, SANS (security) and NIST (National Institute for Standards and Technology). We have been asked to provide Virtual CIO services to facilitate these ongoing efforts. This includes implementing IT governance and best practices, along with the continuance of monitoring the ongoing IT support requirements for the client, their staff and most importantly, their residents. 

End Results 

The Highlands is embarking on a new and exciting future. Weidenhammer consultants continue to provide Virtual CIO, project management and infrastructure services. Kevin P. DeAcosta, President of The Highlands at Wyomissing stated, “We need to adjust and evolve in an effort to stay relevant.” The Weidenhammer team continues to help plan, implement, and manage the changes necessary to achieve that vision. These services and improvements are laying the groundwork for the road to success.