Innovation of health care provision: Observations made during the development of two care products in The Netherlands

Abstract

In an implementation project in The Netherlands a small investigation was made of the most urgent needs of older home care clients. Two potential client groups for the development of specific care-arrangements were selected: “older persons becoming lonely and inactive”, and “partners/caregivers of patients with dementia”.

The care-arrangement “Attention Care” aims to support lonely persons and the care-arrangement “Monitoring of Behavior” aims to provide surveillance at a distance to support the care giving relative of a dementia patient. For both groups the care arrangements use video telephony to communicate with professional caregivers. This paper presents results obtained during the pilot implementation. At the client level the results are encouraging, for both care arrangements positive responses can be noted. However, the pilots are up to now not followed by a full scale implementation of the care arrangements. In the analysis of the results obtained the process of care innovation is discussed. It is concluded that both the healthcare system as well as the individual care organization lack a real stimulus to change practice.