Traditionally, the technologies used in the field of health had three objectives: to reduce costs, to improve the quality of care and the patient experience. A fourth issue emerged with improving the well-being of caregivers.
Caregiver well-being is a growing topic. On the one hand because their importance in our society has been underlined continuously since the start of the pandemic: they were saviors and they are now recognized as such. On the other hand because, and studies on this subject abound, caregivers are in bad shape. Work overload, lack of consideration, difficult working conditions… So many factors which not only increase the risk of anxiety and depression, but which affect the quality of the care they provide and the rate of departure from their jobs.
The right information at the right time to ease the mental load
Taking care of our caregivers has become an ethical imperative for society but also a managerial one for healthcare establishments. And in this respect, the orchestration of data flows has a major role to play. Indeed, caregivers suffer from an environment that is too noisy, from an increase in demands on their attention, from untimely round trips to get information or a device… so many aspects that can be improved by providing the right information to the right person at the right time.
The central question is therefore: how can the “noise” be filtered to allow caregivers to focus on useful events and thus gain in efficiency? To answer, it is necessary to adopt a logic of management of events and classification between those which are relevant and irrelevant. If this classification takes place upstream, it eases the mental load of caregivers while allowing them to be more productive and move quickly to where they are needed.
AI to bring the caregiver where it is needed
For example, a computer system that monitors vital patient data allows caregivers to only look at the sign if an alert leads them there. It’s one less thing to deal with. Eventually, with the development of increasingly efficient AI for selecting alerts, the caregiver will save considerable time. He will be able to access all the professional information at arm’s length from his professional smartphone, he will be able to manage his work from the patient’s bedside without having to make unnecessary trips back and forth.
Another aspect concerns the qualification of alerts. For example, in critical care, the system will raise the alert but also segment it. An alarm can be “to watch” or, on a vital issue, can ask to “go immediately to the patient’s room”. Thus, the caregiver who receives the alert knows if a trip is necessary but also if he needs help and which devices if necessary… even before seeing the patient.
The well-being of caregivers is increasingly taken into account by healthcare establishments. Managing the flow of information is the next step to make their daily life easier while improving the quality of the care they provide.