Smart video sessions, intelligent beds and caring robots are shaping the day-to-day care of the future.
Something like online counseling should also be used in care in the future. If necessary, specialists should be able to connect the family doctor via video and arrange treatment. Further, the attending physician in the home could consult a specialist via video to vote for further treatment. In addition, relatives could also benefit from the technology. For example, the son living 600 kilometers away could come into contact with his senile mother via video chat.
Andreas Westerfallhaus also sees advantages in such a system: „Nursing staff and doctors can relieve each other, increase the supply and thereby reduce costs,“ said the Pflegebevollmächtigter the Federal Government in a newspaper interview. In 2019, it will provide € 330 million for the digitization of care facilities, i.e. € 12,000 per nursing home. This could build up a much-needed telematics infrastructure for digital data exchange.
Even today, 75 percent of old people’s homes use computer-aided patient records. „But there is no networking,“ explains Christel Bienstein from the German professional association for nursing professions. Nursing homes would be better able to prepare for hospital patients. Aids and therapies could be organized prior to arrival if there were secure channels to exchange patient information.
„Many facilities instead fight with extremely slow servers,“ says Anja Fischbeck from practice. „If we have to wait a few minutes for one page to load, how should we use telematics tomorrow?“ Smiles the furniture manager of a Bavarian nursing home.
Stumbling with hardware
Doctors still prefer to communicate by phone, post or fax. The same applies to many nurses. „The willingness to get involved in digitization is the biggest problem,“ explains the economist for hospital and social management. For older professionals, dealing with modern technology is difficult or they reject it. For young people, work in care could become more attractive when digital devices are used. The robot dogs accompanying people with dementia through everyday life can not imagine Fischbeck in ten years. „We have a station cat and I take my dog to work every day, a real animal can not replace a robot,“ she clarifies.
Digitizing does not just mean video chat and data exchange. Wissner-Bosserhoff builds intelligent care beds that detect by sensors as soon as a patient leaves his bed and sends a nurse call that can be individually adjusted. Controlled by a monitor, the bed can weigh patients and move to special mobilization and care positions. It detects moisture and automatically switches on a night light when leaving the bed. Both increase the comfort of the residents.
Conclusion: Especially in the care is still missing digital infrastructure. There are still many technical and ethical hurdles to be taken before caring robots like the Japanese RI-Man bring patients to bed. Nevertheless, pioneers like Aßmann show that telemedicine can help today.
Make your nursing home fit for digitization with these tips:
- Take advantage of offers: In 2019, the German Ministry of Health will provide 330 million euros for the digitization of nursing homes. This corresponds to approximately 12,000 euros for your facility for the purchase of telemedicine consoles or networked blood glucose or ECG measuring instruments.
- Even furniture can become digital: Modern care beds offer integrated weighing systems, nurse call functions and BMI controls with monthly and weekly overview. These can be personalized to the patients and facilitate care for the patient and the specialist.
- Better networked means better supplies: Anyone who already converts to digital patient files today and trains their staff appropriately is well prepared for the networking of tomorrow.
- Creating an attractive workplace: Modern care products and aids make the nursing profession for young people more interesting. Pioneering spirit and innovation make employers attractive. Be the Tesla among the nursing homes.
