Is Telecare Feasible? Lessons from an In-depth Case Study

This paper describes the empirical findings of a large-scale telecare pilot implementation, called KOALA. The pilot is based on video interaction of clients with a medical service centre of a home care provider. The purpose of the project was to gain experience with telecare and to measure the effects in terms of costs and perceived well-being. The expected effects were that clientspsila well-being would be increased and overall costs of health care would be reduced. The results of this study are: (1) the positioning of the medical service centre in the care providerpsilas network and the organization of the centre are crucial for attaining acceptance and cost effectiveness; (2) introduction of a telecare program needs careful preparation with clients and employees, and alignment with existing care; (3) there is substantial difference in the use of telecare and its advantages for different groups of clients; this is especially relevant when using proprietary technology.