Research Article
Digital tools for improving quality in 24-hour home care
@INPROCEEDINGS{10.4108/eai.6-12-2021.2314351, author={Carina Hauser and Elisabeth Haslinger-Baumann and Elisabeth Kupka-Klepsch and Franz Werner}, title={Digital tools for improving quality in 24-hour home care}, proceedings={Abstracts from the 15th EAI International Conference on Pervasive Computing Technologies for Healthcare, PervasiveHealth 2021, 6 December 2021, Tel Aviv, Israel}, publisher={EAI}, proceedings_a={PERVASIVEHEALTH - EAI}, year={2022}, month={3}, keywords={24-hour caregiving; quality assurance; user-centred design process; software solution; evaluation}, doi={10.4108/eai.6-12-2021.2314351} }- Carina Hauser
Elisabeth Haslinger-Baumann
Elisabeth Kupka-Klepsch
Franz Werner
Year: 2022
Digital tools for improving quality in 24-hour home care
PERVASIVEHEALTH - EAI
EAI
DOI: 10.4108/eai.6-12-2021.2314351
Abstract
24-hour caregiving is a key element of the Austrian care system to support elderly people who need care. Support includes housekeeping activities, caring tasks like body care or an exhausting amount of round-the-clock care. 24-hour caregivers commute between their country of origin (mainly Slovakia, Hungary and Romania) and Austria every two or more weeks, which is time-consuming and stressful. Furthermore, working conditions are aggravated due to language barriers, living with chronically ill people, isolation from family and friends and little or no relevant education in care. These challenges not only affect the 24-hour caregivers themselves but also their clients, relatives, registered nurses and care agencies. The aim of the interdisciplinary research project is the user-centred development and evaluation of a distributed software solution for the support and quality assurance of 24-hour home care. The main areas of the developed solution are the e-learning platform and the individually adjustable e-documentation with integrated emergency management. Currently, 24-hour caregivers test the prototype regarding its performance, functionality, usability, user acceptance and impact in a 3-armed RCT over 12 months. Preliminary results of the accompanying qualitative surveys show that especially the e-learning platform is regarded as particularly helpful in the daily care routine. For using the e-documentation, some 24-hour caregivers need further help at the beginning.