Title: Human and organisational aspects of remote patient monitoring in residential care homes

Authors: Tanja Bratan, Jyoti Choudrie, Malcolm Clarke, Russell Jones, Andrew Larkworthy

Addresses: School of Information Systems, Computing and Mathematics, Brunel University, Uxbridge, Middlesex UB8 3PH, UK. ' School of Business and Economics, Swansea University, Singleton Park, Swansea, SA2 8PP, UK. ' School of Information Systems, Computing and Mathematics, Brunel University, Uxbridge, Middlesex UB8 3PH, UK. ' School of Information Systems, Computing and Mathematics, Brunel University, Uxbridge, Middlesex UB8 3PH, UK. ' New Road Surgery, 166 New Road, Croxley Green, Hertfordshire WD3 3HD, UK

Abstract: Demographic changes in the population, with a growing proportion of elderly people, make the efficient and effective provision of healthcare for this age group an increasingly important issue. We examine the organisational and human aspects of introducing a Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM) system that uses wireless and broadband networks into three residential care homes in the UK. Stakeholders were identified, and semi-structured one-to-one interviews were carried out in order to identify issues deemed most important to each group. The work is novel, as it requires examination of the issues of communication between healthcare workers in several primary and secondary care organisations. The key finding was the need to identify the changes in working practice and interpersonal communication. A key factor in particular was the change in relationships: staff in the remote centre needing to learn to seek support when reporting and requesting assistance for a problem; and for the staff at the health centres to respond appropriately.

Keywords: telemedicine; residential care homes; remote patient monitoring; wireless networks; broadband; electronic healthcare; communication; mobile healthcare; m-health; human aspects; organisational aspects; e-health; mobile communications.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEH.2007.011484

International Journal of Electronic Healthcare, 2007 Vol.3 No.1, pp.123 - 134

Published online: 30 Nov 2006 *

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