21st Century Homecare: It’s time to get ‘real’ about real-time
Care is at the heart of every care business, but defining what “caring” looks like can vary greatly depending on an individual’s wishes.
What is important to an individual receiving care?
In a home care business, a typical outcome of the care you are providing is to allow a service user to remain in their own home for as long as possible. In the UK, 63% of people wish to die in their own home, but only 20% actually do. As a home care provider, it is important that you fulfill the outcomes agreed in someone’s care plan where possible.
Can technology improve our ability to allow people to remain in their own homes?
A key way in which we are able to increase the time people are able to remain independent in their own homes is to be more reactive to health issues as they arise, rather than firefighting once the issue has progressed.
How does tech help?
Through the use of modern care management systems, a care provider is able to review peoples care in real-time; allowing any urgent risks to be identified and actioned much faster than any traditional alternative.
This also enables a provider, other medical professionals and family the ability to recognize trends arising in real-time, rather than either much later… or too late. This could relate to medication, diet, emotional well-being, general health or any other recorded aspect of someone’s care, which, if left unchecked, could result in an avoidable hospital admission, the inability to remain in one’s own home or worse.
It's time to get real...
Real-time, digital healthcare is here, it's time to start harnessing it for the betterment of both provider and user. The world around us is moving toward, if not already, digital; health care must keep up.
Digital health tracking is a multimillion-dollar industry at the heart of what “21st Century Healthcare” is going to look like. Almost everybody under 60 has dabbled with a smart watch, a fitness app or tracker, a digital diet plan or mindfulness guidance apps of some kind, so why are we not harnessing our ability to gather the information about older generations, allowing access to vital information on their current health and well-being?