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Challenge
The client — a multi-facility senior assisted-living operator — faced several problems:
Lack of real-time environment visibility: With multiple buildings, units, and resident rooms, facility managers had no unified view of environmental conditions (temperature, humidity, air quality), leading to frequent comfort complaints and reactive maintenance.
Manual, inefficient processes: Maintenance staff relied on periodic manual checks and resident complaints rather than continuous monitoring — this caused delays in identifying HVAC failures or air quality issues.
Regulatory & compliance pressure: As a healthcare-adjacent facility, they needed to ensure environmental data was logged and secured, in case of audits or resident safety reviews.
Scalability concerns: The solution needed to cover dozens of rooms and common areas across multiple buildings — without blowing up in cost or creating a management nightmare.
This all added up to inefficiency, inconsistent resident comfort, and increased risk of compliance issues or emergency maintenance needs.
Our Process
At Next Level IT, we approached the problem with a structured, phased strategy:
- Assessment & Planning - We walked each building with facility management to identify critical monitoring zones — resident rooms, common areas, and HVAC spaces — and defined which environmental metrics required real-time visibility, including temperature, humidity, CO₂/air quality, and HVAC status.
- IoT Architecture & Pilot Deployment - We designed a secure, segmented IoT network using encrypted connectivity and edge-ready sensors, then deployed a pilot across 30 rooms and 5 shared spaces. This included full configuration of dashboards, routing, alert thresholds, and secure data logging.
- Compliance & Security Hardening We implemented strict security controls to meet healthcare-adjacent compliance needs: encrypted data transmission and storage, role-based dashboard access, network isolation, and detailed audit logging for oversight and accountability.
- Full Roll-Out & Staff Training Following a successful pilot, we expanded deployment across all buildings and trained facility staff on interpreting dashboards, responding to alerts, and maintaining or replacing sensors — ensuring the system remains effective and easy to manage.
Category
Design
Client
Regional Medical Practices & Clinics (anonymized for privacy)
Industry
Healthcare / Medical Services / IoT-enabled Clinics
Stack
IoT sensor deployment, secure network design & configuration, real-time data management, cloud integration, compliance & cybersecurity configuration (HIPAA-ready)
Conclusion
The Solution
The final solution delivered by Next Level IT included:
Deployment of IoT environmental sensors (temperature, humidity, air-quality) in every room and common area of the facility.
A segregated, secure IoT network integrated into the facility’s existing network infrastructure but isolated from other traffic — preserving performance and security.
A centralized management dashboard accessible to facility managers:
Real-time monitoring of environmental conditions.
Alerting for out-of-range conditions (e.g., temperature spikes, poor air quality, HVAC failures).
Historical logging for compliance, trend analysis, maintenance scheduling.
Automated alert & response triggers, such as:
HVAC check requests when temperature/humidity thresholds exceeded.
Air-quality alerts to trigger exhaust/fresh-air cycles or HVAC maintenance.
A scalable, maintainable IoT architecture that allows future expansion (e.g., occupancy sensors, water-leak detection, smart lighting) without overhauling the system.
Compliance-ready security posture, including encryption, access control, audit logs — aligning with regulatory and resident-privacy requirements.
End-user training — boosting security awareness and reducing risky sharing behaviours.
Faster Issue Detection & Reduced Maintenance Costs
Real-time alerts enabled 85% quicker identification and resolution of environmental issues and a 60% reduction in maintenance overhead and emergency HVAC calls, preventing failures before they happened.
Enhanced Resident Comfort & Operational Efficiency
The facility saw fewer temperature and air-quality complaints, improved resident satisfaction, and more efficient staff operations through automated reporting, proactive maintenance workflows, and fewer manual checks.
Compliance-Ready & Built for Future Expansion
Secure logging and proper data handling improved audit readiness, while the scalable IoT infrastructure positioned the client to easily add future capabilities like occupancy sensors, leak detection, and smart-building automation.