One duress model,
replicated across 12 sites.

Care staff in senior living are highly mobile and often work alone. Across a network of 12 facilities - each with its own layout and infrastructure density - Pole Star delivers smartphone-based staff duress and wireless nurse call on a single, repeatable deployment model.

12 sites · 40 to 100 access points each
ClientApollo Care
SectorSenior living
Use casesStaff duress & nurse call
TechnologyNAO® Mobile on Fortinet
Apollo Care senior living facility
Project scope

Twelve sites, twelve different starting points

The deployment spans the entire Apollo Care network - and had to absorb the fact that no two facilities have the same layout or the same amount of installed infrastructure.

12
senior living sitesacross the network
40-100
BLE-enabled APsper site, variable density
2
workflowsduress and nurse call
1
repeatable modeldeployed site after site

What the deployment covers

  • 12 senior living sites
  • Variable infrastructure density with 40 to 100 BLE-enabled access points per site
  • Indoor coverage across residential, care and service areas
  • Support for both staff safety and resident assistance workflows
Context & challenges

Mobile staff, often alone, across twelve different sites

Apollo Care operates a network of 12 senior living facilities, each with its own layout, operational constraints and care workflows.

In these environments, staff members are highly mobile and often work alone across residential areas, care units and technical zones.

The primary challenge

Deploy a mobile staff duress solution capable of operating reliably across multiple sites - while also supporting wireless nurse call workflows and leveraging existing network infrastructure.

Lone workers - no colleague nearby when something happens
12 different layouts - no two facilities alike
Uneven infrastructure - from 40 to 100 access points per site
Two workflows - staff safety and resident assistance
Apollo Care senior living residence
Solution deployed

The alert leaves with the location already attached

Pole Star implemented a mobile staff duress solution based on smartphones, enabling care staff to trigger emergency alerts directly from a mobile application - with their real-time indoor location transmitted immediately to response teams.

Workflow 01

Mobile staff duress

When an alert is activated, the staff member's real-time indoor location is immediately transmitted to response teams, ensuring rapid and targeted intervention.

  • Triggered from the app already in hand
  • Works anywhere across residential, care and technical zones
  • No dedicated badge to issue or maintain
Workflow 02

Wireless nurse call

The solution supports wireless nurse call functionality, allowing assistance requests to be associated with a precise indoor location.

  • Each call carries its own position
  • No heavy dedicated infrastructure required
  • Targeted rather than general response

Continuity between two workflows

This combination ensures continuity between staff safety and resident care workflows across all facilities. Care teams work with one system rather than two - and that consistency is what makes the model transferable from site to site.

Care staff triggering a duress alert from a smartphone application
Architecture & solutions

An architecture that absorbs the differences between sites

The solution relies on Pole Star's indoor location platform and the existing network infrastructure - with BlueSpots added where a site needs more accuracy than its AP density alone can deliver.

Architecture · one model, adapted per site

NAO® Mobile

For smartphone-based localization and mobile staff duress.

NAO® Track NG

For real-time indoor positioning and alert management.

Fortinet FortiWiFi & FortiAPs

The existing network infrastructure, supplemented with NAO® BlueSpots to enhance indoor accuracy.

Indoor location infrastructure deployed across Apollo Care senior living facilities

This architecture enables scalable deployment across multiple sites with varying infrastructure densities - the BlueSpots absorb the difference between a 40-AP site and a 100-AP one.

Operational benefits

Protection that follows the carer, and a model that follows the network

The value of the deployment is measured in two directions - the safety of a mobile, often-lone workforce, and the repeatability of a single model across a network of twelve very different facilities.

Lone workers are never truly alone

A carer moving between rooms and floors can raise a duress alert from their own smartphone, wherever they are on site - no dedicated hardware to carry or forget.

Every alert arrives with a location

Responders don't just know that help is needed - they know exactly where, which shortens the walk to the person and removes guesswork under pressure.

Two use cases, one platform

Staff duress and wireless nurse call run on the same indoor-location backbone, so teams learn one system rather than three - and IT maintains one, not three.

One model, replicated across twelve sites

Instead of designing twelve bespoke systems, Apollo Care rolls out a single repeatable deployment pattern - predictable to plan, train and support at scale.

Hardware-agnostic by design

The solution builds on the existing Fortinet network, with NAO® BlueSpots added only where a site needs more accuracy - no rip-and-replace to reach coverage.

Carer supporting an elderly resident in a senior living facility

The differences between a 40-AP site and a 100-AP one are absorbed by the architecture - so what scales across the network is the same duress model, not twelve exceptions.

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