Nursing homes: digital transformation to expand service offerings

5 Sep 2020 | Silver economy

In the future, nursing homes will no longer be just facilities. They will offer expanded services that go beyond their walls.

Nursing homes will undergo a dramatic transformation in the next five years. Their people, tools and processes will have to adapt to support our aging population in different living situations. They will have to respond to the worldwide evolution of the population pyramid and to the needs of people remaining at home for as long as possible.

Nursing homes will have two choices: remain as an enclosed facility and integrate “aging well” service management offerings, or provide an expanded service offering, implemented both within the facility, and, above all, beyond it.

The nursing home of tomorrow will offer a range of human and technological aids

Their geriatric care expertise will be applied with human and technological aid. Nursing homes will therefore have to manage a human organization themselves with the help of technology, either by getting another company to work on their behalf, or by restricting themselves to their original role but still requiring technological aids.

Connected technology opens up new economic models in the form of different levels of subscriptions, with a basic form and different additional options. Nursing homes will become a specialized housing option for end-of-life and dementia care.

This will involve significant changes

Digitization will be at the heart of this revolution to be able to cover all housing types and offer affordable services. This offering will eventually become ultra-personalized to be able to evolve alongside people’s changing independence requirements. New careers will emerge and people involved in this change must be encouraged to innovate.

Major players will have to rethink how they communicate, even if that means rebranding to be associated with this new positioning. Over time, most of their revenue will come from beyond nursing homes themselves. Being able to offer “aging well” will depend on people and technology. This is at the heart of what we do at TECHNOSENS, as we develop our e-lio solution that connects elderly people, families, and health and social care professionals. Nursing homes will become managers and supervisors of all these services within and beyond their facility.