Carlton Senior Living
With RingCentral, this Senior Living Facility’s Communications Infrastructure Enters a New Golden Age
Especially now, that has made it feel much less like I’m working from home—more like my normal workday. And that has been really helpful.
Dave Coluzzi
President, Carlton Senior Living
If you or a loved one were ready to transition to a senior living facility, you’d be fortunate to secure a spot in one of Carlton Senior Living’s eleven communities near Silicon Valley.
The company has won numerous awards for providing outstanding senior care, being one of the industry’s best places to work, and taking innovative approaches to assisted living. In the three decades since its founding, Carlton Senior Living has grown to a dozen facilities across Northern California, offering 1,500 residents everything from independent living to dementia care.
Here’s an inspiring example of how the company uses innovation to improve its residents’ quality of life. Carlton Senior Living teamed up with an organization that develops artificial-intelligence solutions to detect and prevent falls. Thanks to that partnership, Carlton Senior Living reduces its own residents’ falls by 31%.
The company migrated to RingEX as its primary communication platform for business operations. They issued mobile phones to all employees, and everyone downloaded the RingCentral app.
“Eliminating those walkie-talkies has been great for reducing costs,” Dave explains. “Nobody’s dropping the iPhones we gave them.” And saving money was just one of many benefits the company began experiencing when they moved to cloud communications.
INDUSTRY
Healthcare
HQ
Concord, CA
YEAR FOUNDED
1985
EMPLOYEES
1,100+
Enjoying better internal communication
Now that staff members all have RingCentral on their cell phones, they can reach each other anytime on their direct-dial extensions. “I only call the front desk of one of our communities for quality assurance now, because I have everybody’s extension, so I can call them directly,” explains Dave.
Nor are phone calls the only way staff members can communicate using RingCentral. With the app’s team messaging platform, they can also create teams for chats and even file sharing.
“I have the app open all day on my computer,” says Taren Petros, the company’s director of investor relations. “For things that don’t require a phone call or email, I fire off a quick chat. So, I’m chatting with coworkers throughout the day. Especially now, that has made it feel much less like I’m working from home—more like my normal workday. And that has been really helpful.”
I only call the front desk of one of our communities for quality assurance now, because I have everybody’s extension, so I can call them directly.
Dave Coluzzi
President, Carlton Senior Living
Providing better resident care
Managers and staff members weren’t limited to reach each other via static-filled walkie-talkie communications. Now they could use their RingCentral app from anywhere to call, SMS text, communicate via team chat, send pictures and other files, and even have a video meeting.
As Dave explains, one practical advantage these tools created was helping staff gather and share pertinent information during patient emergencies.
True to the company’s culture of innovation, Carlton Senior Living’s team is also continually finding new ways to leverage their RingCentral tools to improve residents’ quality of life. One example is the way the staff uses RingCentral’s team messaging function.
The community is rolling out a new program called Spring in Your Step, where the staff comes up with fun and interesting ways to get residents moving outdoors for exercise and sunshine. Because the entire organization is now connected via RingCentral, the staff members have created a “Spring in Your Step” team chat on the app.
As Dave explains, this is both bringing staff members at different facilities closer together and leading to creative ideas the whole team can share to improve the experience for residents. “We have people on that team all the time, collaborating and dropping new ideas into the conversation. It’s definitely helping us innovate and brainstorm as an organization.”