1. Case Study
3672/LEADBROOKHOUSNURSEHOME/JG
0121 248 7931
www.icomm.co.uk
Icomm Technologies Limited, 45-55 Camden Street, Birmingham, B1 3BP.
Leabrook House Nursing Home
Wireless that improves service delivery and resident well-being
Client
Leabrook House is a private nursing home, in Tipton, West Midlands, which supports the needs of adults with a variety of
physical and learning disabilities. Based over two sites, the organisation can have up to 220 staff offering permanent and
temporary care to as many as 93 residents and 10 day care visitors.
Challenge
Leabrook House promotes itself as‘a home from home’to its residents. As such the
management aims to offer residents the same facilities they would commonly enjoy in
their own households, such as wireless internet access. Unfortunately the care home’s
previous ICT provider had been unable to supply a reliable internet connection to
all areas of the nursing home’s two adjacent sites – in particular in their new build,
Veronica House. This had led to a high number of complaints which was having a
negative impact on referrals to the home.
Andy Lovell, director at Leabrook House, said:“It is common for us to have new
residents asking for the Wi-Fi password before they get to their room these days. One
patient had seven devices he wanted to connect.
“It’s the first thing they want, and if it isn’t working you end up handling complaints
every five minutes.”
He added:“We tend to get a lot of referrals from within the local area, as people will
know a resident in the home. So when you have something like this damaging your
reputation, it’s the last thing you need.”
Leabrook House had the secondary issue that it needed to connect the two staff
clocking-on systems across the separate buildings. Without this connection it was
proving very difficult for the management to complete their payroll duties.
“We thought connecting the two buildings would be a simple task but our previous
provider seemed incapable of resolving this,”said Andy.
“We just wanted to come in, press a button and have everything work but that was not
the case.”
Andy Lovell
Director at Leabrook House
Having
the latest
generation of
Wi-Fi means
we are not
likely to have
any problems
with usage.

2. Case Study
3672/LEADBROOKHOUSNURSEHOME/JG
0121 248 7931
www.icomm.co.uk
Icomm Technologies Limited, 45-55 Camden Street, Birmingham, B1 3BP.
Leabrook House Nursing Home
Solution
Leabrook House asked Icomm Technologies to conduct a site survey and propose a solution. This investigation
found that the wireless system installed was completely inadequate as the modern fire and insulation standards
used in Veronica House were blocking the wireless signal, which meant the home needed more wireless access
points. These access points also needed to have additional performance to handle the modern demands of staff,
residents and visiting family and friends.
Icomm then installed Ruckus wireless access points to ensure there was 100% coverage throughout the site. Using
the latest generation of Wi-Fi, Icomm was able to guarantee that each access point could accommodate a high
density of mobile devices looking to connect. The wireless network introduced also enabled connection of the two
clocking-on systems in adjacent buildings.
In addition to installing a wireless network, Icomm also implemented a managed firewall which would provide
granular control over internet usage within the home and restrict certain types of internet browsing when required.
This would allow the management to provide care staff access to sites important to their role whilst restricting
access to non-essential sites.
Results
All the staff, residents and visitors at Leabrook House can access the internet wherever they may be on site. This has
dramatically reduced complaints and allowed staff to concentrate on care giving rather than connectivity issues.
Happy residents
The guarantee of an internet connection is helping improve the stay of residents at the home, who can remain in
touch with the outside world.
Andy said:“We hold activities for residents, such as indoor volleyball or play your cards right, but some don’t want
that. They just want to go back to their room and watch a film, do some online shopping or video call their family.
We now have the facilities to allow them to do that whenever they want to. It’s improving their well-being.”
Faultless connectivity
Improved Wi-Fi connectivity has not just improved the lives of residents, it has ensured staff can carry on with their
work uninterrupted. The wireless connections between the sites is also helping back office staff to carry out duties,
such as payroll, more efficiently without hindrance.
“Having the latest generation of Wi-Fi means we are not likely to have any problems with usage. For example, if
every resident wanted to use their laptops at the same time we have the capacity to handle it,”said Andy.
“It also benefits the back office staff because the nurses are not going to kick us off our computers to access the
internet. It’s made our lives a lot easier and improved our service delivery.”
Quality service
Confident that its Wi-Fi problems are resolved and happy with the service provided, the management is now
looking to further improve its ICT with a desktop refresh across both sites.
Andy said:“We are a family run business and we just want things to work as they should. With Icomm, any problems
are sorted either immediately or within a day. Everything they have said they will do for us they have done.
“The experience has been very good, and with the wireless now sorted we are looking at other ways we can
improve, such as replacing all the computers that are no longer fit for purpose.”