Man checking indoor air quality

Skilled nursing facilities, assisted living communities and other types of senior living and care providers can work with a partner to leverage a modern funding method, mitigate risk, create cost efficiency and use technology to improve infrastructure. That’s according to Mary Fox, vertical market director of living spaces at global diversified technology company Johnson Controls, which has a U.S. headquarters in Milwaukee.

Companies across the board are meeting new challenges as they open their doors to a coming post-pandemic world, Fox said. In long-term care, doing so means creating an infrastructure that integrates the entire ecosystem for the safety of staff, residents and visitors.

“We’re really at a turning point right now when it comes to the digital age in infrastructure and integration and how we as leaders in that industry can bring that technology and those infrastructure improvements to assisted living to help the staff, the residents and the visitors coming to the facility day after day,” Fox told the McKnight’s Business Daily

Companies such as Johnson Controls, she said, can be a “one-stop shop,” offering design build, engineering of the system, installation, implementation and programming of the system, and then maintenance of the system over time in addition to finding the funding sources to pay for it all.

“It’s really a holistic program to bring infrastructure and innovative solutions to all these facilities,” Fox said.

Many funding options are available to operators, including performance contracting, where energy and maintenance savings effectively pay for improvements, she said. The Department of Health and Human Services has incentive programs for bringing the right solutions, too, Fox added.

“We also have community development blocks [through the Department of Housing and Urban Development], which I think is extremely underutilized as a funding source. It needs to be applied for in grants, and what we’ve been able to do over this period of the pandemic is actually help assisted living facilities estimate and apply for [block grants],” she said.

The grants may be used for needs such as new HVAC systems, upgrading existing systems and integrating those systems to provide improved air quality.

Another option, Fox said, is to look to utility companies for help, as some are offering grants and incentives for things such as UV lighting and  clean air solutions 

Johnson Controls also helps companies scout out low-interest loans to improve their infrastructure to help them afford what they need to bring their properties to a new standard, she said.

“The standard is, basically, we need to protect the most vulnerable population we have during the pandemic and in the years to come,” Fox said.