title: Home care and technology: a case study.
abstract: Health care aides (HCAs) are the backbone of the home care system and provide a range of services to people who, for various reasons related to chronic conditions and aging, are not able to take care of themselves independently. The demand for HCA services will increase and the current HCA supply will likely not keep up with this increasing demand without fundamental changes in the current environment. Information and communication technology (ICT) can address some of the workflow challenges HCAs face. In this project, we conducted an ethnographic study to document and analyse HCAs' workflows and team interactions. Based on our findings, we designed an ICT tool suite, integrating easily available existing and newly developed (by our team) technologies to address these issues. Finally, we simulated the deployment of our technologies, to assess the potential impact of these technological solutions on the workflow and productivity of HCAs, their healthcare teams and client care.
authors.affiliation: University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada. stroulia@ualberta.ca
authors.forename: Eleni
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Stroulia
authors.forename: Ioanis
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Nikolaidisa
authors.forename: Lili
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Liua
authors.forename: Sharla
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: King
authors.forename: Lysanne
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Lessard
mesh_terms: D001071:Appointments and Schedules; D040421:Cell Phone; D003266:Continuity of Patient Care / Q000458:organization & administration; D057286:Electronic Health Records / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000458:organization & administration*; D018576:Home Health Aides / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006801:Humans; D007256:Information Systems / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000458:organization & administration; D018670:Monitoring, Ambulatory / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D019982:Organizational Case Studies; D010348:Patient Care Team / Q000458:organization & administration; D013685:Telecommunications / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000458:organization & administration; D017216:Telemedicine / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000458:organization & administration*; D057188:Workflow