The Importance of Technology, Digital Tools and Efficiency Improvement in a Care Home

This report discusses the significance of technology, digital tools and efficiency improvement in a Care Home. It covers the use of technology, its importance, and how it can enhance the efficiency of a Care Home.

DIGITAL SKILLS AND
RESEARCH METHODS

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
Background of the study..............................................................................................................3
Aim..............................................................................................................................................3
Objectives....................................................................................................................................3
Research questions.......................................................................................................................3
Rationale of the study..................................................................................................................3
LITERATURE REVIEW................................................................................................................4
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY....................................................................................................5
Research type...............................................................................................................................5
Research approach.......................................................................................................................5
Research philosophy....................................................................................................................5
Research Design..........................................................................................................................6
Data Collection............................................................................................................................6
Data Analysis...............................................................................................................................6
Reliability and validity................................................................................................................6
Research limitations.....................................................................................................................6
Ethical considerations..................................................................................................................7
Secondary Data Analysis.............................................................................................................7
Analysis and discussion...............................................................................................................7
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION..............................................................................8
Recommendations relating to digital tools that can enhance the operating efficiency of a Care
Home............................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................1

Topic: The importance of technology, digital tools and efficiency improvement in a Care Home
INTRODUCTION
Background of the study
It has been identified that, the technology and the digital tools plays an in important role
in the Care Homes in United Kingdom (Juul, Wilding, and Baldassar, 2019). There are several
technologies such as telehealth, telecare and telemedicine helps the people admitted within Care
Homes by providing them with proper care which can make them stay longer to treat the
persistent long term condition without having to leave the Care Homes. The digital tools
available in today’s world helps the Care Homes in smoothening the process of their admission
and making it hassle free enhancing the pace of the process and ease to avail the services for the
elderly people.
Aim
The aim of this report is to determine the important of technology, digital tools and
efficiency improvement in a Care Home.
Objectives
With respect to the aim of this report, the objectives have been enlisted:
 To develop an understanding towards the use of technology within a Care Home.
 To determine the importance of technology and digital tools with respect to a Care Home.
 To identify how the use of technology can increase the efficiency of a Care Home.
 To recommend certain digital tools that can enhance the operating efficiency of a Care
Home.
Research questions
Q.1 What is the use of digital tools including its benefits and disadvantages?
Q.2 What is the importance of digital technology with respect to a Care Home?
Q.3 How technology can be used to enhance the efficiency of a Care Home?

Rationale of the study
The major reason behind conducting this research to determine the significance of the
technology as well as the digital tools along with the efficiency improvement in Home Care
centres (Realdon, and et.al 2018,). This is a research issue because it has been observed that
today technology plays an essential role in smoothening the processes within each and every
organization. This has been considered as an issue now because it is essential for the Home Care
Centres to determine the importance of digital tools in order to increase their efficiency.
LITERATURE REVIEW
According to Thongprasert, and Jiamsanguanwong, (2021), there are several uses of
technology within the Home Care Centres. It includes storing and retrieving of data related to the
patients or the residents of the Care Homes which makes their administrative processes easy and
smooth and provides a basis for carrying out further operational tasks. The use of technology
also makes it easier for the Home Care to communicate within their centre and provide a
connectivity between the workforce and the service users within that centre.
As per the views of Lilianira, and et.al (2020) the electronic order entry allows the
workforce to save their time by recording the details related to the medical order directly on the
system instead of recording it manually. With the use of electronic order entry, the use of
telephones, fax, or traditional methods of passing on information can be replaced. This helps the
Home Care Centres in increasing their efficiency.
As investigated by Morgan, and et.al (2020), it has been determined that currently, most
of the Home Care Units do not use the technology within their centre and therefore, faces the
issues related to the increased cost, and poor services. Therefore, if a Care Home decides to
implement the use of technology, it can help them in reduction in the medication errors, increase
in the efficiency of the carers, enhanced investigation, improved intensive care and lastly, an
enhancement in the evidence based guiding principle.
According to the Kapoor, and et.al (2020), there are different types of digital tools which
can be used by the Home Care Centres, one of which is the use of Electronic Health Record. The
Electronic Health Record is a software that allows the staff of the Care Homes to record the
medical history of a patient in order provide them with a course of action that is required for their

treatment. Another tool that can be used by the Care Homes is the use of Patient Portals. With
the help of Patient Portals, the workforce of the Care Home can easily determine the test results
of a patient, his billing status, prescribed medications.
Rodriguez, Clark, and Bates, (2020) investigated also invested the use of a digital tool
which can be described as Remote Patient Monitoring. The use of RPM within the Care Home
can be found useful for the purpose of determining, tracking and then responding to the data of a
patient outside the Care Home or a clinic. This tool is specifically useful for those service users
which are suffering from the certain diseases that may result in heart failure, or stress and
hypertension and diabetes. The RPM is useful for them in determining the situations that calls for
emergency.
According to the Poncela ,and et.al ., (2019)., one of the major risks attached with
technology is the threat of security. It has been determined that one of the main advantages of
using technology is the ease to record and maintain the data of patients, medical conditions and
their current treatments. The information can be extracted by the Home Cares as and when
required. Similarly, the technology does not eliminate the risk of security. The data and the
information that has been stored can be accessed by the third party. This risk is known as the risk
of cybersecurity.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research type
Research types can be bifurcated into two parts, namely, qualitative research and
quantitative research. For the purpose of determining the importance of technology, digital tools
and efficiency improvement in a Care Home, qualitative type of research has been chosen. The
qualitative research has helped in determining how implementation of technology within the
Care Homes has become essential and how it use helps the Home Care Centres in increasing
their efficiency.
Research approach
The research approach that has been chosen in order to conduct this research is Inductive
research approach. This research approach has helped in theory generation in relation to the use
of technology within Home Care and implementing its use within the same. The Inductive
Research served a basis for evaluating the qualitative study.

Research philosophy
Research philosophy is a procedure through which the researcher makes use of its own
knowledge about the topic of the research. Research philosophy can be of two types namely,
Interpretivism and Positivism (Bucci, Schwannauer, and Berry, 2019). Under this report, the
interpretivism philosophy has been used for the purpose of evaluating the information pertaining
to the use of technology and digital tools within the Care Homes.
Research Design
There are mainly three types of research designs, namely, exploratory research design,
descriptive research design and third one is case study. In the present study, the exploratory
research design has been used for the purpose of conducting this research. The exploratory
research design has helped in determining the problem associated with the use of technology and
the challenges that the Care Homes face.
Data Collection
Data collection is a technique that helps in the process of research by helping in the
collection of data, measuring of the same and analysing it for the purpose of conducting research.
There are majorly two methods which can be used for the purpose of collecting the data, they are
secondary method and the primary method of data collection. However, in order to conduct this
research, only secondary data has been collected. For secondary research, the data has been
collected from books, journals, magazines, and online websites.
Data Analysis
The process through which certain techniques are utilised in order to explain and evaluate
the data for the purpose of developing informative conclusions is known as data analysis. Data
Analysis can be done in two ways, either, by using the thematic test perception test or by using
SPSS technique. In this report, the thematic test perception test has been used as it helps in
evaluating the qualitative data in an appropriate manner.
Reliability and validity
In order to maintain the reliability and validity of the data that has been collected, only
relevant articles, books, journals that have been published after the year 2010 have been
considered (Bielicki, and et.al 2020). Moreover, only those information has been taken from the
web that are available on the copyright protected websites. This has been helped enhancing the
reliability of the research.

Research limitations
The main limitations faced while carrying out this research were because of the
unavailability of appropriate resources, restricted money and limited time. Since, the time
available for carrying out this research was limited, the SPSS technique has not been used.
However, the current issue was appropriately addressed using the thematic test perception
analysis as the nature of the study was qualitative in nature.
Ethical considerations
While collecting the data for the purpose secondary research, certain ethical guidelines
were followed which includes the appropriate use of data that means using the data in such a way
that it does not harm the reputation of the author and publisher. Moreover, a list of references
will be attached which states that the data has not been copied and is an authentic work.
Secondary Data Analysis
Theme 1: Understanding about the usage of technology in care home centres
It has been analysed that if Care Home centres implements the use of technology within
their systems, it will reduce their time to is indulged in recordkeeping the information manually
(Labrique, and et.al 2018.). The use of technology can help them determining the heart beats of
the patients through remote patient monitoring tool. By using this, the Home care centres can
analyse the health of the patient remotely and also identify when there is a need of emergency. It
can also be used for the purpose aligning the business operations and easing the process of
communication within the Care Homes.
Theme 2: Identification of significance of technology and digital tools in context of care homes
There are several benefits associated with implementing the use of digital tools within
Care homes. The use of digital tools helps the Home care in availing a detailed view of the
present medical condition as well as the medical history of the service user. The access to the
data of the health of the service user helps the carer in developing strategies that can prove to be
beneficial as per the medical history of the service user. This increases the effectiveness as well
as the efficiency of the Home Care.
Theme 3: Determining how technology helps in enhancing the efficiency of Home Care Centres
The use of technology within Home Care centres increases the efficiency as when they
use technology to maintain the records of the patients, it helps them in saving their time utilising

it for taking care of the patients. Moreover, the access to data which states the pre-conditions and
the history of the patient, it helps them in easily formulating strategies for their treatment.
Analysis and discussion
From the above data, it can be analysed that technology is useful for the growth and
development of the Home Care centres. The use of technology helps in easing the medical and
operational processes by automating most of the operating functions by minimising the manual
processes (Keesara, Jonas, and Schulman, 2020). The time saved with the implementation of
technology and digital tools can be used for the purpose of taking care of the patients within the
Care homes. Moreover, the use of technology provides access to earlier records of the service
users which helps in formulating the most appropriate treatment.
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
From the above report, it can be concluded that technology plays an important role within
the Home Care centres. If Care Home Units decides to implement the use of technology within
their organization, it can help them in increasing the efficiency of their centres and helps them
providing enhanced services to their service users.
Recommendations relating to digital tools that can enhance the operating efficiency of a Care
Home.
 Referral management software can help the Home Care Units in improving their
operational efficiency as it helps them in determining the accuracy and exactness of the
data that has been recorded.
 It also helps the Home Care Unit to design the plan of treatment for the purpose of
conducting the treatment of the service user by providing in the brief the medical history
of the service user and form a basis for deciding the course of treatment.
 Another tool is Unified Patient Record. It eliminates the data of patient that has been
recorded multiple times and reduces and minimises the occurrence of errors and promotes
the efficiency of the Care Homes.

REFERENCES
Books and journals
Juul, A., Wilding, R. and Baldassar, L., 2019. The best day of the week: New technology
enhancing quality of life in a care home. International Journal of Environmental
Research and Public Health, 16(6), p.1000.
Realdon, O., and et.al 2018, January. The technology-enhanced ability continuum-of-care home
program for people with cognitive disorders: concept design and scenario of use.
In International Symposium on Pervasive Computing Paradigms for Mental Health (pp.
64-73). Springer, Cham.
Thongprasert, A. and Jiamsanguanwong, A., 2021. New product development processes for IOT-
enabled home use medical devices: a systematic review. Engineering Journal, 25(2),
pp.15-48.
Lilianira, F.T., and et.al 2020. The Technology processing of" 4 care" home care application
based on artificial intelligence. Journal of Multidisciplinary Academic, 4(1), pp.6-9.
Morgan, C., and et.al 2020. Systematic review looking at the use of technology to measure free-
living symptom and activity outcomes in Parkinson’s disease in the home or a home-
like environment. Journal of Parkinson's disease, 10(2), pp.429-454.
Kapoor, A., and et.al 2020. Digital healthcare: The only solution for better healthcare during
COVID-19 pandemic?. Indian Heart Journal, 72(2), pp.61-64.
Rodriguez, J.A., Clark, C.R. and Bates, D.W., 2020. Digital health equity as a necessity in the
21st century cures act era. Jama, 323(23), pp.2381-2382.
Labrique, A., and et.al 2018. Digital health and health systems of the future. Global Health:
Science and Practice, 6(Supplement 1), pp.S1-S4.
Bucci, S., Schwannauer, M. and Berry, N., 2019. The digital revolution and its impact on mental
health care. Psychology and Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice, 92(2),
pp.277-297.
Poncela, A.,and et.al ., 2019. Smart care home system: a platform for eAssistance. Journal of
Ambient Intelligence and Humanized Computing, 10(10), pp.3997-4021.
Keesara, S., Jonas, A. and Schulman, K., 2020. Covid-19 and health care’s digital
revolution. New England Journal of Medicine, 382(23), p.e82.
Bielicki, J.A., and et.al 2020. Monitoring approaches for health-care workers during the COVID-
19 pandemic. The Lancet Infectious Diseases, 20(10), pp.e261-e267.
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