Dishmachines

• See the Steamers & Combi-Ovens section for guidance on determining the need to descale booster heaters and interior of units
• Follow manufacturer-specific guidelines or request service from an authorized provider
• Calibrate flow switches and maintain sensors to ensure proper performance
• Clean or replace filters

Recommended product: To address mineral and lime scale buildup in booster heaters and dishmachine interiors, use Cleveland 109811 Descaler (Clv Dissolve Dynamix). Always follow the equipment manufacturer’s cleaning instructions and verify that the cleaner is compatible with internal surfaces.

Ice machines

• Your ice machine should be cleaned and sanitized regularly to avoid problems. Cleaning will help remove the buildup of lime scale and other deposits from impure water; sanitizing is designed to eliminate organisms like algae, slime and bacteria
• Refer to your owner’s manual for manufacturer-specific guidelines
• Check filters and clean your condenser coils
• Some filters are disposable and some can be cleaned with soap and water
• See the refrigerators & freezers section for instructions on condenser coil cleaning

Recommended product: For safe and effective sanitation, use Manitowoc ice machine sanitizer, 16 oz to eliminate algae, slime and bacteria. Pair with Manitowoc nickel-safe cleaner, 16 oz to remove lime scale and mineral deposits.

Legionella and water management

As part of CMS guidelines, it’s important to include any equipment requiring the use of water in your water management plan and to continually test for the presence of Legionella bacterium.

Commercial floor care

Floor care and maintenance is another part of your commercial kitchen cleaning checklist. In today’s tough regulatory and reimbursement climate, floor maintenance and operations professionals are pressed to find savings amidst tight budgets. Discover how to extract savings with commercial floor care and equipment.

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Research and implement a unit turnover software solution

Operators and key stakeholders in the buildings can navigate and control the process better through property management software with unit turnover functionality, such as TELS® Unit Turns. The benefits are numerous, both from a corporate office process viewpoint as well as through the implementation at the building level.

Building users gain tools to improve decision-making and communication

• Repairs and expenses are well documented, tracked and housed
• Maintenance teams can make better repair-or-replace decisions and executive directors can break down unit turnover expenses.
• Better communication between maintenance and sales teams and executive director results in clear expectations and shorter vacancy windows.

Create a change management plan to implement the solution

Once you’ve decided on a property management software solution with unit turnover functionality, ensure you have a change management plan in place to ensure smooth and successful implementation.

1. Identify stakeholders

• Create a list of everyone at your organization that should be involved in the planning, decision making, or implementation of unit turnover.
• From the highest level, identify the person that will own the unit turnover program (if using TELS, this person would be designated as a Power User).
• Identify the team that will align and create the templates that will be used to create unit turnover standards. These templates will take the form of checklists for buildings in your organization to use each time they complete the Unit Turns process.
• List out the major roles that will be working within the software, who will need to be notified of the program start, finish, and milestones, and those who will need instructions and training (maintenance personnel, regional directors, marketing, etc.)

2. Determine objectives and action items

Set clear objectives, goals and expectations up front for everyone involved in the transition. Once you’ve identified your objectives (e.g. reduce vacancy windows by 1 week on average), list out the goals that will need to be completed in order to meet them, as well as the timelines for completing these tasks.

For example:

• All facilities in your organization transition to property management software like TELS Unit Turns by a set date.
• Standardize the unit turnover program by instituting checklists for all facilities to use.
• Reduce carpet expenses/spend by requiring all carpet replacements include a picture to allow analysis by your teams.

Create additional action items to touch base on progress and keep the project moving forward. Include meeting dates, target dates and deadlines in this list. These additional action items could include:

• Create the team that will be standardizing the unit turnover process with checklists by room type or care and ask your designated TELS Power User to configure the checklists in TELS Unit Turns and align on a completion date.

• Set target dates for communications to be sent so that maintenance teams can ramp up before launch.
• Send messaging to internal teams to assign a date that unit turnover functionality will be turned on, and when they can begin using the tools.

 3. Create a timeline

• Review your list of action items and be sure to highlight any which need to be completed in a certain order, such as those that can’t begin until a previous action item is done.
• Create benchmarks when appropriate so that you can track intermittent progress up to your deadline date for each goal.
• Ensure that each stakeholder has an understanding of the action items, expectations and timelines that will affect them, and enough time to seek necessary feedback and or training as they begin on these action items.

4. Implement a communication plan

A communication plan should list out any communications associated with the unit turnover project and elements that should be included in the messaging. Start with high-level messaging to leadership that notes the objectives, action items and timeline of the project.

Plans to communicate to the maintenance teams should include:

• An explanation of the upcoming change to start using a unit turnover software solution.
• The reasons for the change and benefits they will see.
• Start date, training materials and instructions on how to use the tools.

Make sure to plan for communications after launching the unit turnover software to share how well the transition went and highlight some of the initial benefits teams are seeing.

Sources:

1. https://www.carepredict.com/blog/retain-senior-living-residents/ 

The Importance of Curb Appeal Landscaping

Whether you realize it or not, potential residents are forming their opinions about your community every single day. According to a benchmarking report by Enquire Solutions, landscaping and signage have the power to generate over 40% of prospective resident tours and appointments.¹ That’s because these first impressions are a prospective resident’s or family’s first glimpse into your brand, attention to detail and quality of care you provide.

Outdoor Visitation Spaces

Quality outdoor environments are strongly linked to important health-related measures and behaviors, such as reduced resident stress, improved mood and satisfaction, increased physical activity, and better health outcomes.³

Consider creating or refreshing safe, inviting spaces for your residents and visitors to gather and socialize. Find ideas on furnishing and decorating outdoor spaces.

Spring Cleanup Landscaping Tasks

Ensure these commercial landscaping tips are part of your spring routine. Add them to the list if you DIY, or ensure they’re included in the contract with your commercial landscaper.

Does your commercial landscaping contract include these 5 key spring clean up landscaping tasks?

1. Clean up accumulated leaves and trash on the lawn and in your planting beds. Cut back any grass and other perennials that were left up for winter. A vigorous raking of any matted turf will also stimulate growth.
2. Fertilize lawn with a formulation that includes pre-emergent weed control. Shrubs and perennials could benefit from a fertilizer application at this time as well.
3. Prune back any dead or damaged materials in your shrubs and trees. Some shrubs may need a light pruning. Ensure any spring flowering shrubs are not pruned, which would reduce their blooms.
4. Put an edge on planting beds and around tree circles. This enhances their look and helps establish a line where the turf should be kept separate from planting beds.
5. Check irrigation systems for broken or damaged heads and leaking lines. Ensure the heads are properly spraying the desired turf and planting beds.

Fall landscaping cleanup tasks to prepare for winter

Fall landscaping often goes hand in hand with lawn and flower bed care. When it comes to fall tasks, you’ll want to ensure your landscaper is performing these tasks:

1. Leaf cleanup. Keep your lawn healthy over winter by removing leaves. You can recycle them by using them for mulch, toss them into a compost, or use a leaf shredder before tossing them.
2. Mow the lawn. Now is the time to lower the blade of the mower to cut the grass as short as possible. This helps prevent unwanted rodents from using your lawn as their winter home.
3. Pruning. Remove any branches that break off and cause problems during freezing temperatures or hard winter winds. This includes any overgrown limbs that hang over gutters, sidewalks, parking lots, or are too close to windows. Now is also the time to reshape any large trees⁴ as well.
4. Seasonally planted bulbs. Fall is key for planting certain types of bulbs and new roots.   

*Note: Landscaping services are available in select TELS markets; call for availability. All services will be performed by the Direct Supply® TELS® network of third-party, qualified, licensed, insured service providers.

Sources
¹Astles, B. L. (2015). The Impact of Outdoor Environments on Health and Well-being of Residents in Long-term Care Facilities: A Review of the Literature. Retrieved December 29, 2020, from http://summit.sfu.ca/system/files/iritems1/16054/etd9289_BAstles.pdf

²Deciding to Go Out. (n.d.). Retrieved December 29, 2020, from https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/daily-life-coping/deciding-to-go-out.html

³New Senior Living Sales and Marketing Benchmarking Report: Q2 2015. (2018, September 13). Retrieved December 29, 2020, from https://enquiresolutions.com/new-senior-living-sales-and-marketing-benchmarking-report-q2-2015/

⁴https://www.monarchlandscape.com/blog/your-fall-checklist-for-commercial-landscaping

• 46.4% of respondents identified tech integration as a crucial skill

• 46% noted digital tools will help increase communication methods

• 70% said they would be interested in trying new, diverse tools on the jobsite (up from 68% in 2023)³”

This emphasis on technology is where you can leverage the CMMS tool TELS® Platform. A growing practice in building management positions involves narrowing down the search for maintenance candidates by evaluating a potential hire’s familiarity with the TELS® system. As the number one maintenance platform in the Senior Living industry with over 15,000 buildings, and rapidly rising in popularity in healthcare, educational systems and other industries, there are many facilities who specifically post TELS experience as a favorable job skill to have, thereby easily streamlining the hiring process and narrowing down the search without spending valuable time searching through candidates.

Even if your potential new recruit isn’t familiar with TELS, the user-friendly platform makes it easy to test your maintenance job candidate. Consider giving a candidate a real life test – pair the candidate alongside another maintenance staff member on an actual work order to evaluate how quickly the candidate can navigate through TELS. This helps determine whether or not that candidate has the capability to ask relevant questions, learn new technologies quickly, and can help determine if they can contribute to your community with their willingness and ability to adapt to the fast-paced environment of building maintenance. While TELS isn’t the only test you may want them to take, it can help you sort through the applicants at a faster rate. 

However, some facilities simply don’t have the luxury of a vast pool of qualified individuals familiar with the industry they’re applying for. As a result, they need to view candidates that may not have the experience needed. This is where we are seeing buildings use the TELS system to their advantage. Since TELS is customizable, you can upload docuemntation, information and training opportuities tailored for your staff. This helps open up your job pool to people outside the industry without compromising the safety of your facility as the platform offers self-service instructions and safety guidelines to help your new hire keep up with industry standards.

How to retain maintenance staff in building maintenance

Lack of staffing has pushed people into roles they normally wouldn’t take on, and into buildings outside of their own scope. You need someone who is reliable, and who you can trust to get the job done without being intimidated by the fast-paced and oftentimes demanding tasks found as a maintenance staff member. After all, the safety and comfort of occupants and staff often relies on the capabilities and speed of your maintenance team.

There are three key strategies you can easily take on in order to improve and retain staff in a culture of high turnover:

1. Give technologies that help simplify their jobs
2. Foster healthy communication within maintenance teams
3. Provide your team learning opportunities to enhance their skills

1. Retaining staff with helpful technologies

Time management emerged as a major pain point in the past couple years. Time is a precious commodity that can make or break a maintenance director. Providing reliable technology is key for time management and your ability to retain maintenance staff. Identifying ways your maintenance staff can cut out busy work and focus on the care of the building and resident’s safety is now an essential part of the job.

This is where TELS Platform and TELS Building Services is a versatile tool to help you with these goals. We’ve found that facilities who leverage the mobile app free up more time than those who don’t. TELS cuts the need to travel to and from an office to file paperwork. Instead, facilities log completed tasks and view work orders on the TELS mobile app. Buildings are investing in Wi-Fi and mobile phones for their staff to ensure maintenance has access to the app, thus allowing your maintenance staff to accomplish more tasks and quickly input the necessary documentation right on site, and gain access to paperless work orders with EHR integration systems such as PointClickCare.

2. Fostering healthy communication and accountability within your maintenance teams

Retention also relies on the relationship you build with your staff. Other facilities schedule weekly or monthly recurring calls for a deep dive into different TELS aspects, or even topics like time management to get a feel for how the new staff member is doing in their new position. People who are willing to partake in these discussions usually perform better, and in these meetings, you can address any concerns your new maintenance member has as well.

You can use the information and tracking capabilities in TELS Platform to foster accountability and reward employees based on important metrics, such as completing required tasks on time, hitting goals, or decreasing the amount of time unit turnovers take as you work to get rooms back on the market faster.

3. Providing new learning opportunities to increase staff training

As mentioned in the NFPA’s Industry Trends Survey, technology and education were vital to workers in facility maintenance, fire service, manufacturing and other skill-based jobs. Even if your facility has a CMMS to foster better time and task management skills and increase communication, you still need to educate your staff on how to use it effectively. By creating a training program, or using a CMMS that already has a training program in place such as the TELS Masters training, you’re showcasing your dedication to your staff’s continued growth and success in their role. 

Sources

1. https://financesonline.com/employee-turnover-statistics/

2. https://financesonline.com/employee-turnover-statistics/ 

*Availability may vary by location. Check with a TELS representative to see if your area has TELS Building Services.

9 Steps to Winterize Pipes and Help Keep Your Pipes and Plumbing from Freezing

What materials handle cold weather better?

Due to age and demographics of facilities, many have galvanized or copper piping. However, if you are undertaking a plumbing project, you may want to consider using Uponor or Wirsbo Pex if you live in a cold climate. This material is made to expand and contract, so even when they freeze, they have a higher chance of withstanding the expansion and contraction of the ice as it freezes and thaws, potentially preventing bursts.

DIY tips and tricks on winterizing your plumbing

1. Put a bit of pink antifreeze into toilet tanks, floor drains like showers, mop sinks, etc; anything that is susceptible to freezing that you don’t utilize frequently. It’s cheap insurance to help your pipes make it through the winter.
2. On cold nights, open your kitchen cabinet doors to help pick up ambient temperature in the room.
3. In extreme cold, let water drip from your faucets and flush your toilets more frequently to get the water moving.

Sources:

1. http://www.iapws.org/faq1/freeze.html#:~:text=Water%20is%20one%20of%20the,it%20expands%20by%20approximately%209%25.

2. https://www.mallickplumbing.com/blog/2016/december/the-real-reason-that-pipes-burst-when-they-freez/

3. https://www.thebalancesmb.com/stop-freezing-pipes-2124982

Why does fall preventive maintenance actually matter?

While there are times when you simply can’t sidestep emergency repairs, preventive maintenance can go a long way to reduce the amount of emergency needs in your facility. By practicing preventive maintenance, you may be able to:

• Reduce emergency service needs (and costs)
• Extend asset life
• Increase workspace safety
• Save money in the long run

Fall HVAC maintenance checklist

Your HVAC system is critical to your community’s health and wellbeing, making this a vital piece you’ll want to ensure runs properly. Thankfully, a little now will do a lot to ensure your residents keep warm and comfortable during the long heating season.

• Make sure drain lines and pans are clean
• Inspect heat exchanger
• Replace filters and lubricate parts
• Clean the coils
• Inspect the ducts
• Schedule a maintenance checkup if needed

 Grease trap cleaning assessment tips

There’s nothing glamorous about it, but this as-needed task needs to be done. Blocked, clogged or improperly cleaned grease traps can cause maintenance costs to soar and resident and staff satisfaction to suffer.

• Reference your asset documents to determine when your last cleaning occurred and when you’ll most likely need another one

• Schedule your next grease trap cleaning to remove the built-up waste since your last cleaning

Preparing your exterior landscape for winter

Residents aren’t the only living beings you take care of: trees, shrubs, and flowers are also affected by winter weather. Use this checklist¹ to help keep your exterior looking nice and allow your landscape to spring back to life when it warms up.

• Remove dead annuals
• Aerate & fertilize the lawn
• Mulch any flower beds & insulate your perennials
• Plant any spring-blooming bulbs
• Trim shrubs & perennials
• Prune trees

Where can I find HVAC, mixing valve, and grease trap cleaning near me?

Performing these fall maintenance checklist tasks can help ensure your community runs smoothly throughout the upcoming fall season and beyond and can help you avoid costly emergency service visits that all too often plague the industry. When you don’t have the time, the staffing or simply don’t want the headache, the TELS® team can help you schedule these maintenance tasks and cross them off your to-do list. Our nationwide network of service technicians gives you access to insured, local and vetted service providers near your community. With TELS® Building Services, you’ll have:

• 24/7 maintenance service and support
• Emergency equipment rentals (call for availability)
• A 30-minute cap on travel time for technicians
• 15-minute billing increments
• No emergency fees

We know that it can be tough to make the leap and schedule service with a new company for the first time. Even if you “have a guy” or can do it yourself, we’re here to support your maintenance needs in any way we can.

Learn more about the full TELS Building Services offering or call 888-433-3224 to speak live to a helpful TELS team member. Our staff of fully trained customer service professionals and maintenance technicians can help consult with you, diagnose issues and set you up with the right service provider.

Sources:

https://www.angi.com/articles/10-ways-prepare-your-landscape-winter.htm

Building maintenance spring tips & tricks for your HVAC system

A properly cleaned, maintained and balanced system as part of any Senior Living HVAC preventive maintenance plan is a necessity. Geographical location and climate may present certain challenges for your HVAC systems, as well as specific temperature and system requirements based on local, state or federal mandate.

HVAC system maintenance cold vs warm climates

• Cooler northern climates: HVAC systems may need a more thorough inspection prior to the start of cooling season after collecting leaves and debris and sitting idly for several months during the winter
• Warmer southern climates: cooling systems may have been utilized more during winter months than in cooler climates resulting in less idle time, but require the same depth of inspection

3 steps to help your springtime HVAC maintenance

Before getting started, be sure to clean up around the outside of the unit and clear away branches, leaves and overgrown grass or plants. Check back periodically during the season. Then, follow these 3 steps as part of a commercial HVAC maintenance program to help ensure year-round comfort and minimize costly downtime.

1. Clean condenser and evaporator coils
   The condensing coil and evaporator coil in an HVAC unit should be cleaned at the start of each cooling season. Clean coils maximize heat transfer at the coil surface, so it’s essential to keep them free of debris that can reduce efficiency. For condensing units, lawn mowing results in the need for frequent condenser coil washing due to blades of grass settling in the coils. If the condensing unit sits on the ground, trim brush and shrubbery around it to prevent airflow obstruction. Also, road and building construction causes excessive dust buildup on coils. For cooling towers, before filling with water, thoroughly clean the basin of leaves and debris. Perform an operating check on motors, pumps and other parts.
2. Change filters
   Clean filters are important for efficiency and maintaining good indoor air quality. Begin the cooling season with clean filters, and be sure to clean or replace them twice a year to avoid dust buildup, which may lead to airflow restriction, reduced efficiency and dust recirculating into your building.
3. Inspect, seal and insulate ducts
   According to the EPA, a deficiency in your duct system can cause 20 to 30 percent air loss in your system. When air leaks from the ducts, it causes the system to work harder and wastes energy. Check connections on all accessible ducts and make sure they are well-insulated and sealed with mastic sealant or metal tape.

This webinar features Bill Pearson II and Jack Murphy of IWC Innovations

Water management is a strategic way to manage risk, regulatory compliance and prevent illness in your facility. There are a lot of steps that need to be taken when it comes to managing your water systems on both the potable and non-potable side. From a corporate perspective, water management can be a daunting task.

In this interactive webinar, you’ll learn from veteran water specialists Bill Pearson and Jack Murphy about best practices when it comes to the overall water management strategy across your portfolio.

Join us to learn

1. How to keep your facilities safe from waterborne pathogens like Legionella
2. How to perform due diligence in new acquisitions
3. Top construction and renovations best practices to follow
4. What to do if your water main breaks
5. How to implement a robust, standardized water management strategy across your entire portfolio

NOTICE: The information contained in this presentation is intended to provide general information but not advice about certain regulations and initiatives. This is not intended as legal or other advice and each situation may vary depending on the particular facts and circumstances. You should not act upon this information without first consulting with qualified legal counsel.

As the Senior Living industry continues to struggle with labor shortages, Direct Supply, as an applied technology company, continues to invest in technology solutions that enable senior housing communities to work smarter, build efficiencies and meet more residents’ needs with less staff. 

We saw an opportunity to create efficiencies by combining the data in nurse call databases with the power of technology within Direct Supply’s TELS® Platform.  Behind the scenes, we connect with nurse call device databases and TELS to generate automatic work orders for battery operated devices, such as pendants or pull cords, to track device health and incorporate appropriate alerts into the maintenance staff’s day. 

By integrating nurse call with the TELS platform, we’re using Senior Living technology to solve problems, drive efficiency and gain visibility for your staff.

“At a time where communities are feeling the pain of staffing shortages across their operation, we are excited to bring real, measurable change to Operators through meaningful technology integration. As an applied technology company, Direct Supply is continually looking for ways to bridge the gap in staffing levels through the proper deployment of better, simpler and smarter technology. Putting up to 10 minutes per day back in a Maintenance Director’s day is a great first step, and we can’t wait to bring more efficiencies to our customers like we did with our nurse call and
TELS integration.” 

Integrate your compatible nurse call system with TELS Platform 

Advantages of web-based software for Senior Living

When it comes to Senior Living technology, TELS Platform can be the central hub for Senior Living staff. Gain visibility into community needs, save time and reduce miscommunication with an easily navigated, single location to store documents, manage work orders, request services, access training and much more.

What efficiencies does TELS Platform offer?

Time: Streamline communication with a single hub of documentation for all your building maintenance needs. Staff can cut back time spent tracking down communication and work orders as they request service on the spot, manage tasks, track and evaluate costs, and communicate needs.

Strategy: Take advantage of the asset data in your communities to strategically plan monthly, quarterly and yearly spend, potentially avoiding time and budget drains that stem from needing emergency repairs. 

Onboarding: Free, on-demand training allows communities to quickly ramp up and stay up to date with key knowledge and skills relevant to their positions. Plus, with a list of vetted and local service providers on hand from the TELS Building Services network, new hires don’t need to build up a rapport with nearby vendors.

Impacts of Senior Living technology platform beyond maintenance

Why this Senior Living technology platform benefits staff, residents and loved ones:

Direct Benefits for Staff: Streamlining the maintenance process can help free up staff schedules and increase operational efficiency, allowing them to direct their time and efforts to more training, spending time with residents, maintaining other assets in the community and improving budgeting strategies.

Improved Community Culture for Residents and Loved Ones: Increased efficiency for staff opens up more time to spend with residents one on one, providing a healthier atmosphere and directing budgetary efforts to other Senior Living technologies.

Case Study: TELS Integrated Nurse Call System

Direct Supply partnered with a local Senior Living community to pilot this new integration between TELS platform and PalCare’s nurse call software.  

The integration into the TELS platform enabled the community maintenance team to immediately know what life safety nurse call devices had low batteries or no-signal status. It also monitors for things like power outages or tampering with critical repeater infrastructure. TELS work orders were automatically generated based on the PalCare device status, which enabled real-time maintenance notifications to help improve resident safety and reduce the risk of malfunctioning systems.

During the pilot, this Senior Living community was able to verify the integration was successful and gave feedback on the user experience to enhance future developments. They shared with our team:    

“We are committed to making each Senior Living community meet or surpass all our residents’ expectations. We see the TELS integration as a way to commit to our resident’s fully functioning nurse call devices.

The integration allows us to maintain our nurse call system health through the TELS software to help us save time and lower operating expenses. Upon using the TELS and nurse call integration we are confident batteries are being replaced when needed.

We are looking forward to deploying this new technology integration between Direct Supply’s TELS platform and our nurse call system to exceed our residents’ expectations and save our staff time while lowering
operating expenses.”

Based on data from the pilot, we concluded that the workflow impact experienced by integrating nurse call to TELS helps*

• Save up to 10 minutes of time everyday through automated workflows
• 84% fewer devices reaching critically low battery status
• Enables communities to be 4x faster in replacing low-battery devices
• Achieves $1.2K in labor savings each year

Integrating your nurse call system, like PalCare or CenTrak, with TELS Platform has clear benefits. Gain maintenance efficiencies, promote device health and deliver better resident service. Improve the resident experience by ensuring maintenance teams receive work order faster. Once you activate your nurse call service plan, we’ll activate the TELS interaction to receive automatic nurse call maintenance requests in TELS platform. It really is that easy!

*Results based on a pilot with a 257 bed CCRC community, comparing the average results two months prior and two months post implementation. Results not guaranteed. Results will vary depending on the number of devices, internal processes for responding to tasks, and other factors.

¹ Qualtrics in partnership with the Developers Collective. (2021). 2021 Senior Housing Survey Results & Analysis. Direct Supply.