Charles Willems*, hszuyd, Heerlen, Netherlands Marieke Spreeuwenberg*, Hszuyd, Heerlen, Netherlands Loek Van Der Heide, hszuyd, heerlen, Netherlands Luc De Witte, Hszuyd, Heerlen, Netherlands John Rietman, Proteion, Venray, Netherlands Track: Research Presentation Topic: other Presentation Type: Oral presentation Submission Type: Panel Presentation Building: MECC Room: Auditorium 2 Date: 2010-11-30 01:00 PM – 02:00 PM Last modified: 2010-09-22

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Demographic trends in southern Netherlands predict an increasing aging population in the coming decade. Since there will not be enough health providers available to meet the growing demand of care of the elderly, there is a need to reorganize the Dutch health care system in a more efficient way. In this process, innovative technologies can play an important role. With the Quiet Care system the activities of the elderly living at home are automatically monitored. The monitoring is done by placing infrared sensors in the home at specific locations, such as in the bathroom or in the refrigerator. Clearly interpreted information about the general daily living (ADL) of elderly living at home is shown on a secure web site. Based on this information providers have a better view on what's happening at home and, when necessary, they can provide care in a more reactive way. In the province of Limburg a transition project has started aimed to apply the Quiet Care system to enable older people to live longer independently at home in a responsible and safe manner. Methods A pilot study is conducted with 19 frail elderly clients of home care organization Proteion. A regionally based information infrastructure to handle alerts was organized. A questionnaire was used to measure the clients’ quality of life and feelings of safety at baseline and after 26 weeks. After this pilot, protocols for implementation and educational material have been developed to support organizations in the implementation of the Quiet Care System. Successively, all teams of Proteion will be educated to work with the system and about 100 clients of Proteion will be supported with Quiet Care in the coming year. Large-scale introduction of the Quiet Care system will however have an impact on the way that this care is provided. An evaluation study is carried out to study the effects. The Quality of life, feelings of safety, loneliness of clients, the feelings of burden of direct caregivers and the job satisfaction of health providers are monitored at baseline, after three months and after half a year of inclusion. Results and discussion In the pilot study 11 out of 19 clients indicate that their feeling of security has increased by the system. Caregivers indicated that the system had a clear added value and feel that they have a better view on the daily functioning of the clients. At this moment three teams of Proteion and two teams of the Zorggroep (another care organization active in the same region) are educated to work with the system and above 100 clients are supported with Quiet Care. This year two other home care providers will implement Quiet Care in their organization. A societal business case has been developed to detect the long term financial consequences of this care application. Results of the process evaluation of the implementation and the effect study will be presented at the conference.
Address: Centre of Research Technology in Care, Zuyd University , Heerlen, The Netherlands; E: c.g.m.h.willems@hszuyd.nl