Case Study

Installation of BDAs To Get a Cellular Signal throughout a Concrete and Brick Building Built into a Hillside.

The Hillsborough County Nursing Home is a 300 bed facility with a 400 person staff located in Goffstown, NH. The facility is comprised of three connected buildings which are built into a hillside. The buildings are traditional 1970s brick and concrete block construction. As a result of their hillside location and solid construction, no one could get a reliable cell signal in the building.

There were several major issues due to the lack of cell coverage in the facility:

• The nursing staff could not communicate with doctors via their cell phones. They had to walk to the nurses’ station and use the land line to consult with physicians.
• Physicians were unable to speak with residents’ family members using their cell phones.
• During an admission, if the new resident or their family member needed to call their insurance company or primary care doctor for required information, they couldn’t get a signal to do so.
• Vendors, such as pharmaceutical suppliers or medical equipment suppliers, couldn’t get a signal when they were at the facility, making it difficult to get pricing and information for the purchasing department.
• The Facilities Department could not communicate with vendors or its staff via cell phone due to the lack of cell coverage.

The Hillsborough County Nursing Home Administrators wanted the problem solved. They did online research and were interested in Cellular Bi-directional Amplifiers (BDAs) as a potential solution. They contacted the manufacturer, Wilson, directly and Wilson recommended KTS as the company to resolve the issue of unreliable cell coverage at Hillsborough Nursing Home.

The Work

KTS visited the Hillsborough County Nursing Home to define requirements and designed a system to be unobtrusive, highly efficient and provide cell coverage throughout the entire facility.

KTS installed the cellular BDAs in the facility. The bi-directional amplifier antennas were installed throughout the hallways to ensure staff members would have a reliable signal. Installation in the hallways was part of the design as the signal would still extend into the residents’ rooms allowing coverage for residents and visitors.

Project Challenges

The only challenge was to ensure the work being done did not disrupt the residents’ activities or daily routines. To ensure this was the case, KTS coordinated with the staff and Activities Director to schedule the work.

Benefits/Impact

With installation completed, every corner of the facility is now able to receive reliable cellular coverage. See below for the ‘Before’ and ‘After’ changes in cell signals.

Physicians and the nursing staff can communicate easily with one another and with family members, and vendors and visitors can get a reliable cell signal throughout the facility.

This work was completed in January of 2020. Within a few weeks, Covid-19 required a lock-down at the facility to protect the residents. They were fortunate to have reliable cell service and were able to add one more benefit from it: using technology as an alternative way for families and friends to visit the residents and keep their spirits up.