As technological advancements and innovations in the care industry become more available and accessible today, care providers are more incentivised to implement modern and smart solutions. The benefits of the change extend to professional carers (but also care performed by relatives) especially with the difficult and stress-inducing nature of the work. Studies also suggest that the quality of care being delivered is directly related to the job satisfaction level of the professional carers – which further emphasises the importance of using modern and smart solutions to improve the overall quality of care provided in a nursing home or a care home.
In one example, a nursing home in Lisbon, Portugal saw huge improvements in overall productivity once they switched to a modern alarm solution.
Read more: Implementing and Embracing Smart Solutions to Improve Elderly Care Homes throughout Europe
The market will also see a huge increase in the shipment and availability of care alarms in Europe, with the volume of the shipment of modern care alarms projected to take over outdated analogue solutions, from 2022 onwards.
Another important factor to consider is that analogue technology is increasingly becoming outdated, especially with the complete analogue switch-off, set to take place in 2025 in the United Kingdom. While this is still a few years away, it’s important to take into consideration that the platform providers already have the possibility to make, and offer a smooth transition.
So, with the importance of smart and modern solutions established, following are 10 reasons and factors that make switching to modern and smart solutions ideal today for care providers:
1. “Pay-as-you-go” pricing model
This pricing model allows customers to pay only for exactly what they will be using, instead of having to sign up for fixed and flat-rate packages that don’t meet their exact needs. This can make the transition to smart solutions even smoother, as this pricing model lowers the barrier to entry of the cloud-based platform.
2. Cost-effective devices and solutions
Care providers can expect to see long-term gains in cost savings with the implementation of smart solutions. With the implementation of smart incontinence solutions, one provider observed gross annual cost savings of up to 222K NOK per year per patient, with an entry fee of only 14K NOK.
Moreover, traditional systems and devices based on analogue platforms are already seeing less support as the world transitions to digital solutions, and this can come to result in overall more maintenance procedures.
3. Modularity of solutions
Using a cloud-based platform allows care providers to implement only the solutions they need, instead of having to integrate additional services they don’t necessarily benefit from. This is especially helpful for nursing homes and assisted living facilities, as their needs and challenges differ from one another. One example of this is the nursing home mentioned earlier that benefited greatly from the implementation of a modern alarm system.
4. Future-proof approach
With modern and smart solutions, care providers can upgrade their existing systems as they see fit. A cloud-based platform allows providers to simply integrate newer solutions as they become available on the market, instead of having to perform a complete overhaul of their existing system.
5. The option to start little by little
Understandably, transitioning away from analogue solutions can be quite daunting and challenging, especially when the newer and more modern options are highly advanced. Aside from other factors, modern solutions can seem more complex initially when compared to older solutions and devices. However, it’s important to note that cloud-based platforms do allow providers to transition slowly at their own pace, implementing one solution at a time instead of having to make drastic changes right away.
6. Group functionality
Through the use of mobile devices and corresponding apps, family members, loved ones, and relatives of care receivers and patients can be integrated to the platform as well, allowing them to access the features of the solutions, such as scheduled surveillance or even alarm handling.
7. Effective and flexible solutions
Another important benefit of modern solutions is the added flexibility, which not only applies to the configuration of the whole system, but during actual usage as well. For example, night supervision cameras can be configured to only conduct scheduled virtual “checks,” eliminating the need for constant (and sometimes interfering) supervision, which addresses the privacy concern around surveillance cameras.
8. Advanced and foolproof alarm management solutions
Cloud-based alarm services feature failovers, making sure that alarms and events are still forwarded promptly in the event of a single server cluster fail. With capable cloud-based services, this process is fully automatic, making sure that alarms and events are relayed to the operators.
9. Secure handling of data and alarms, complete with an audit trail
Next-generation response centre platforms handle data safely and securely, and produce detailed logs and records of how alarms or events have been handled. This also allows those who have access to the alarm platform to monitor how the events or alarms are being handled.
10. Interoperability of systems and solutions
Generally, interoperability is described as the ability or characteristic of a system, device, or solution to work with other computers and systems. Through cloud-based platforms, providers can build a system with devices that work in synergy with other devices implemented in the system. The users can also add quality-of-life solutions such as voice- controlled assistants to further streamline their system.
As further innovations become available on the market, the benefits are also expected to grow, granting providers and service users with much more flexibility and control over their systems. To implement these solutions, partnering with a capable provider is just as important, especially with the initial challenges that may be encountered when transitioning away from the analogue platforms. With a capable platform, the transition to modern systems and solutions can be made seamless. Furthermore, most of the features and benefits mentioned earlier can’t be maximised to their full potential unless they’re implemented through a powerful and secure platform.
Skyresponse provides a 100% cloud-based, future-proof platform, and fully scalable platform, allowing providers to implement solutions that fit their own particular needs as well as their clients’. The platform of Skyresponse is also fully optimised for IoT devices, helping providers implement modern solutions as they become available.