Feature
The Power of Partnership:
Brainstorm: 1, Thunderstorm: 0
T
he North Fork of Long Island is home to sprawling vineyards, rustic
countryside and acres of lush farm land. It is also home to many senior citizens
who enjoy an active lifestyle at Peconic Landing. Nestled between a vineyard and a
golf course on Long Island’s bucolic North Fork, Peconic Landing is Long Island’s
only nationally accredited Lifecare Community.
Residents at Peconic Landing “chart their own course” and can live independently
in a cottage or apartment, later moving to more supervised accommodations or
nursing care as needs arise. The technology used at a community such as Peconic
Landing is as multi-faceted as the residents’ needs. Toward that end, Peconic
Landing chose to partner with Custom Computer Specialists (Custom) to
manage their technology implementations and monitor their day-to-day
operations.
“Peconic Landing prides itself
Custom, a technology solutions provider, works closely with healthcare
organizations throughout the Northeast. Custom helps to implement the
technology required for facilities to comply with healthcare regulations, while
also meeting the needs of residents, patients and staff. Because there is a very
high expectation of security and peace of mind that is non-negotiable, Custom
was chosen to design and deploy a data network that could support critical and
strategic functionality, geared toward the health, safety and comfort of all residents
in all phases of the property. Their innovative use of technology includes a stateof-the-art personal emergency call button system that provides residents the
ability to receive assistance anywhere on the property; indoors or out. Providing
this enhanced layer of security was as much a priority for Peconic Landing as their
staff of security guards and CPR administrators. Steven Carroll, Peconic Landing’s
chief financial officer, explained, “Peconic Landing prides itself on providing
opportunities for all seniors to realize a sense of purpose,
peace of mind and security. We work so our members can
on providing
realize a sense of security in all aspects of their lives.”
opportunities for all seniors to realize a sense
On the night of June 23, 2015, Long Island was battered
by powerful thunderstorms. At approximately 9 p.m.,
Peconic Landing sustained a lightning strike that knocked
work so our members can realize a sense of
out power and their data network. However, thanks to
security in all aspects of their lives.”
Custom’s around the clock monitoring, an alert was
immediately received at Custom’s Network Operations
— Steven Carroll, chief financial officer, Peconic Landing
Center (NOC). Senior management and technicians
from Custom’s Managed Services team were immediately
alerted. Remote troubleshooting generally resolves 90 percent of issues, however
after about 30 minutes of remote diagnostics, the client’s network was still down.
The team recognized that this was a major outage, but the extent wasn’t yet clear.
A dedicated Managed Services team was immediately dispatched into the storm to
figure out exactly where the problem occurred and what was needed to fix it.
of purpose, peace of mind and security. We
(See The Power of Partnership on page 12)
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Adviser a publication of LeadingAge New York | Spring 2016
The Power of Partnership ...
(continued from page 11)
By midnight, power and the internet were restored, but not the network. The
outage had the potential to turn into a grave situation. Phones, security cameras
and other operations were still not functional. But, more significantly, the most
critical functions of the network were down. Nurses couldn’t monitor the patients
in the nursing home and the personal emergency call button system was inoperable.
Mobilizing resources in response to a potential emergency situation would have been
extremely difficult.
Custom quickly realized that the only resolution was to reboot each device
individually. That meant every computer and every camera. Carroll said, “Custom
understood the critical nature of the situation and wasted no time correcting the
problem, relieving any undue burden it could place on our members’ lives.” At 3 a.m.,
Peconic Landing was back up and running. Crisis averted! The morning shift didn’t
even realize there had been such a major problem overnight.
Peconic Landing has since purchased new equipment that will significantly reduce
the likelihood of a similar situation arising again. Carroll and his team will continue to
work with the team at Custom as they seek out technology innovations that enhance
and enrich the lives of their residents.
Andrew Robinson, director of managed services, Custom Computer Specialists
can be reached at www.customtech.com.
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