Business area digitalisation analysis

Social care and long-term care institutions: digitalisation analysis

How to integrate the resident care plan, daily tasks, medications, family communication and risk monitoring

Digital maturity

Typical digital maturity

Shows the level of technological and process digitalisation at which companies in the sector or business area typically operate today.

A typical market situation is assessed, not the most advanced companies.

The assessment consists of five equally weighted dimensions:

Core system usage
Whether ERP, CRM, WMS, MES, customer portals or other operationally important systems are widespread in companies.
Process digitalisation
How many core processes run in systems and how many are still managed manually.
Systems integration
Whether core systems exchange data between themselves or whether employees transfer information manually.
Data quality and readiness
Whether core data is structured, up-to-date, consistent and suitable for automation and analytics.
Advanced data use
Whether real-time analytics, forecasting, automated alerts, optimisation models or AI are used.

The final score is the average of the five dimensions.

1–5 scale

  • 1 very low maturity
  • 2 low maturity
  • 3 medium maturity
  • 4 high maturity
  • 5 very high maturity

A low maturity score does not necessarily indicate low potential. On the contrary, low maturity and a high level of manual work may indicate significant untapped digitalisation value.

low
Skaitmenizacijos potencialas

Digitalisation potential

Shows how much significant business value a typical sector or business area company can create by systematically digitalising core processes.

The rating is calculated on a 100-point scale across five dimensions:

Process frequency and scale 20 %
An assessment of how frequently the digitalised processes recur and what proportion of operations they represent.
Manual work intensity 20 %
An assessment of the extent to which processes depend on email, telephone, Excel, paper documents and repeated data entry.
Impact on revenue and costs 25 %
An assessment of the potential effect on sales, margin, customer retention, administrative costs, errors, downtime or inventory.
Growth and scale potential 20 %
An assessment of whether digitalisation would enable operational capacity to be increased without expanding headcount and costs at the same rate.
Impact on decisions and risk 15 %
An assessment of the potential effect on data reliability, decision-making speed, customer experience, and the reduction of errors and operational risk.

The final score is calculated according to the assessments and weights of all dimensions.

100-point scale

  • 0–20 very low potential
  • 21–40 low potential
  • 41–60 moderate potential
  • 61–80 high potential
  • 81–100 very high potential

A high score does not mean the solution will be easy to implement. It indicates the size of the potential value, not the implementation complexity.

87/100
Biggest challenge
Resident care plan is fragmented
Biggest opportunity
One resident care plan and chain of daily actions

The greatest value lies in fewer missed actions and clearer accountability around the clock, rather than yet another reporting system.

How social care and long-term care facilities operate

The business area includes residential care homes, long-term nursing, palliative care and specialist care facilities where quality of service depends on consistent execution of daily activities across shifts.

Care is provided around the clock

Information must remain current across changing shifts, staff and professional groups.

Many people implement the plan

Nurses, personal care workers, social workers, doctors and other specialists must work towards common goals.

Small daily changes can be significant

Changes in appetite, mobility, behaviour, pain or sleep may be an early risk signal.

Technology must work at the resident's side

Staff require a quick mobile workplace, not additional form-filling at the end of a shift.

Market and technology context

Digitalisation of long-term care is driven by staff shortages, the need for mobile workplaces, closed-loop medication administration, incident prevention and secure communication with relatives.

  • Staff shortages increase the importance of clarity for every actionThe system must help quickly understand what to do now, rather than require additional administration.
  • Quality is measured by continuity of careIt is important not only to record the action, but to ensure that the change is passed on to the next shift and amends the plan where necessary.
  • Medication safety requires a closed loopPrescription, preparation, identification, actual administration, refusal and monitoring of effects must be linked.
  • Sensors create value only as an additional signalDetection of falls, exits or unusual activity must be integrated into a clear human response workflow.

Typical long-term care chain

01

Admission and needs assessment

Health, social, functional, nutrition, medication, representation and safety data are collected.

02

Individual care plan development

Goals, daily activities, medications, risk prevention, specialist involvement and review dates are defined.

03

Shift task preparation

The current plan is converted into specific staff tasks, priorities and alerts.

04

Delivery of daily care

Performances, refusals, changes in condition, medication, nutrition, mobility and other important states are registered to the resident.

05

Incident and condition change management

A fall, pressure ulcer risk, or change in behaviour or health creates an assessment, accountability and plan review.

06

Plan review and informing relatives

The team evaluates the outcome, updates the plan and, according to agreed rules, provides information to relatives or representatives.

Digital maturity model

0

Paper plans and verbal shift handovers

Daily tasks, medications, changes in condition and incidents depend on paper logs and staff memory.

1

Separate accounting and document registers

Resident data and reports are digital, but actual work with the resident and shift handovers remain manual.

2

Digitalised individual care processes Typical current situation

Electronic tasks, medication lists or an incident register are used in some areas, but the individual plan, daily execution, shift handovers and risk management do not yet form one coherent chain.

3

Integrated resident care process

The individual plan, shift tasks, medications, actual execution, changes in condition, incidents and communication with relatives are linked in one chain.

4

Data-driven risk prevention and quality Siektina

The facility monitors missed actions, medication discrepancies, fall and pressure ulcer risk, staff workload and plan reviews in real time.

5

Safely proactive long-term care system

Sensors and analytics help identify changes in condition, but alert thresholds, actions and plan adjustments are managed by responsible staff.

Key finding

In long-term care, digitalisation value is created not by administrative reporting, but by reliable day-to-day care delivery at the resident's bedside.

A single individual plan must become concrete shift tasks, whilst actual performance, changes in condition, medications and incidents must feed back into the current plan.

The first version should cover one department and several highest-risk processes: shift handover, daily tasks and one medication administration scenario.

Related topics

Self-service portal for relativesLong-term care process managementDigitalisation of medication administration
Next step

Linking the care plan to daily work

We will review the chain of shifts, tasks, medications and incidents for one unit and help define a first version that is genuinely convenient for staff.