Designing portable solutions to support collaborative workflow in long-term care: A five point strategy

Providing continuous care for residents of long-term health care facilities or for individuals requiring home care can be difficult. The daily needs of residents exist within the context of long term health goals, which are often tailored for individual residents´ needs but are identified by multiple caregivers. Collaboration and clear communication between caregivers is essential for delivery of effective care. Analysis and constant sharing of resident status over time is needed in order to evaluate a status change and define treatments. By investigating the workflow in a long term health facility, we identified the key needs of caregivers to document and share resident status, analyze documentation relative to long term health goals and treatments, and to share information with other caregivers. We propose a five-point strategy for addressing these needs, derived from this investigation, as follows:, (i) data capture is supported in multiple formats, (ii) visual analytics tools are provided to analyze records, (iii) collaborative tools are provided to facilitate information sharing and the organization of care, (iv) user interaction is aided by the implementation of a natural user interface (NLH), and (v) the interface optimizes communication. In this paper, we share three prototype designs which support caregivers in a long-term care facility and are scalable for homecare use. We also present the context and the design methodology through which the designs emerged.