Open Innovation 2.0 Yearbook 2013 - European Commission - Europa

Case study: Helsinki City Home Care
The Helsinki City Home Care pilot focused on analysing
the impacts of increased virtualisation of
services in the elderly home care ecosystem in
Helsinki. Helsinki City Home Care is a division under
the City of Helsinki Health Services. The Home Care
Services Unit (domestic services and home nursing)
of the Helsinki Health Centre provides nursing, care
and necessary support services to over 100 000
customers through over 2 million annual visits in
order to maintain the health and functionality of
the elderly, convalescents, patients suffering from
chronic illnesses and disabled people over the age
of 18. The objective is to secure the clients’ active
and safe living at home. A person is entitled to
home care services and related support services if
he/she needs help in daily activities, such as eating,
washing, dressing, getting out of bed/chair,
walking, or visits to the toilet [7]. With the ageing
population, customers’ needs for such services are
growing exponentially. Thus, new care solutions and
technologies are actively being experimented with.
In this particular case, the service was enhanced by
implementing a two-way video connection between
the care centre and the elderly citizens’ homes.
The main participants of the trial consisted of Helsinki
City Home Care Division, Palmia (a private service
provider), Tunstal and the customers. This was
completed by an outer circle of management and
support organisations, Forum Virium Helsinki and
Aalto CKIR. Helsinki City Home Care division was in
charge of providing home care to the clients in the
trial project. The role of Palmia in the project was
central as it was in charge of running the helpdesk
and operating the servers and the hardware, and
installing the software for the experimental trial.
Palmia was also the provider of the emergency service,
and envisioned provider of the virtual home care
service through their virtual contact centre. Tunstal
provided the hardware and software for the project.
In the pilot, the Helsinki City Home Care division
selected 10 pilot users from its customer base. The
selected clients were between 50 and 90 years old
and all had different profiles in terms of their independency
and health. In the trial, an individual set
of objectives was defined for each customer. The
objectives ranged from supporting a drug-free lifestyle
and increased independency through social
interaction, to a reduction in regular visits through
reminders to take medication and meals, as well
as simple care operations such as taking medicine
and measuring blood pressure. In the course of the
pilot, new aspects such as an improved sense of
security and confidence to live independently were
also detected.
The project started with an extensive analysis of
the ‘as is’ situation in Helsinki City Home Care services.
After that, the technical and organisational
requirements, as well as aspects related to security
and privacy, were assessed in detail. The follow-up
to the experiments in the trial was carried out by
investigating two questions.
1. What are the perceived and measurable
impacts of the video connection to the various
parties involved?
2. What are the anticipated system level changes
required for the wider implementation of the
service?
The impacts and benefits were mapped through
structured interviews, Web-based surveys and
computer logs for quantitative evidence to support
the interview data. The results summarised that
the technology was non-invasive, easy to use, and
added to people’s sense of confidence to act and
live independently through an increased sense of
security, connectivity and access to the aid personnel.
The video enabled more frequent calls, which
added to the structure and routine of their days,
and provided much appreciated social interaction
at the customers’ convenience, while not invading
their privacy or daily schedules. The call log files
demonstrated a steady increase in both the number
and duration of the calls. The customers also
began to increasingly initiate the calls themselves,
which was interpreted as their appreciation of the
opportunity to contact the care personnel at their
convenience. The nurses seconded the ease of use
of the system, and felt the added value in terms of
increased informal communications with the customers,
which was considered to contribute to preventative
care. Using the system, the nurses gained
a better overall knowledge of the customers’ status
both physically and mentally, and could address
issues before they escalated to such an extent that
other extra or unplanned visits were needed.
The impacts to the case owner, the City of Helsinki,
as the responsible healthcare provider, were manyfold
and simulated a situation where the organisation
of home care is reorganised. With the encouraging
results in the pilot, it was decided that the
pilot will be extended, and a real service creation
environment will be trialled. In the operating model,
the video calls are operated by Palmia Virtual Care
Centre, and integrated as a part of the Home Careprovided
daily care. This co-creation by the two
organisations required changes and adjustments in
the processes, roles and mandates of the organisations.
The need for further integration of the various
dimensions of the service became apparent,
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