Franke Tobey Jones Achieves Uptime and Growth with Retirement Community IT Services

Client Perspective

Franke Tobey Jones (FTJ) is a premier retirement community in Tacoma, Washington, with more than 100 years of dedication to resident well-being. To continue delivering high-quality service while preparing for campus expansion, FTJ needed a network that could support daily operations, protect sensitive data, and provide a stronger foundation for growth.

After 15 years of partnership, FTJ turned to CompassMSP’s retirement community IT services to modernize its infrastructure and build a more resilient technology environment.

THE PROBLEM

Downtime and HIPAA Compliance Risk

In healthcare and senior living, technology is part of the care experience. Staff need EMR network reliability, secure communications, and uninterrupted connectivity across every building. When infrastructure falls short, it slows response times, introduces compliance risks, and impacts patient care.

Century-Old Buildings vs. Modern Networking

FTJ’s campus presented a common challenge in healthcare environments operating in older facilities: the buildings were rich in history but not designed for modern networking. Century-old construction created physical limitations that made it hard to deliver the reliable, always-on connectivity that FJT teams need.

Single Points of Failure Put Resident Care at Risk

The existing network also lacked redundancy. A single outage in one building could affect coverage across the broader campus. For a retirement community, this is a major liability. Clinical and administrative teams need 24/7 access to EMR data and other critical systems to support daily operations and maintain compliance.

Internet reliability was another concern. Without a resilient failover strategy in place, any disruption could prevent FJT teams from accessing cloud-based care platforms, putting the organization at greater risk for violating HIPAA requirements.

Network Capacity Challenges in Senior Living Expansion Projects

At the same time, FTJ was preparing for expansion. Their legacy systems were already at capacity, and FJT needed resilient network infrastructure for retirement communities that could scale with new construction projects, future technologies, and the evolving needs of a healthcare organization.

THE SOLUTION

Healthcare Infrastructure Modernization Built for Continuous Care

After being a longtime CompassMSP client, FJT pulled our team in to design a solution that prioritized uptime and provided healthcare IT support for multi-building campuses.

A Multi-Path Fiber Ring to Strengthen Campus Connectivity

CompassMSP designed and implemented a fully redundant fiber ring with Lumen to create multi-path connectivity across the campus. This gave FTJ a more resilient network backbone and reduced the risk of a single point of failure disrupting service. The traffic automatically reroutes if one line goes down, ensuring the campus stays online.

Hardening the Perimeter with High-Availability Firewalls

Security in healthcare is a non-negotiable requirement for HIPAA. To strengthen healthcare business continuity, CompassMSP deployed WatchGuard high-availability firewalls with dual-provider failover, adding another layer of protection. If the primary internet provider fails, the system instantly switches to a backup, keeping the EMR cloud solutions accessible and secure.

A Unified Communications Upgrade for Healthcare Facilities

CompassMSP also built custom HIPAA-compliant security measures around workstations and printers. These safeguards helped FJT secure sensitive resident information and meet compliance requirements.

Finally, we leveraged the new fiber backbone to upgrade FJT’s communications environment with the 8x8 Unified Communications (UCaaS) platform, ensuring staff stay connected across the growing campus.

THE RESULTS

Measurable ROI In Healthcare Communications

Honoring a Century of Service with Modern Connectivity

Franke Tobey Jones has successfully bridged the gap between their 100-year history and the high-tech requirements of modern senior living. By investing in a redundant network design, they achieved several key wins:

• Maximum Uptime: With a dual-path fiber ring and failover connectivity in place, FTJ gained the uptime and reliability needed to keep critical systems available across the campus.
• Continuous HIPAA Compliance: Managed security protocols and access controls keep resident data protected and audit-ready at all times.
• Secure EMR Access for Senior Living Staff: FJT teams have 24/7, high-speed access to EMR cloud solutions, ensuring that patient and medical records are always up to date.
• Scalability for Expansion: The new network foundation positioned FTJ to support current construction plans and future campus expansion without compromising network performance, security, or continuity.