Welfare technology and the implementation process in home care Challenges, pitfalls and success factors in implementation of KOMP pro and other welfare technology solutions

Abstract

Welfare technology is technology with the purpose of giving people the opportunity to better manage their health and improve their lives though innovation and implementation of new technologies. The goal is to make the welfare system better equipped to meet the future challenges in our society such as demographic and life expectancy changes. KOMP pro is one of the technologies with the purpose to help home care professionals find new and innovative ways of communicating with users of home care services through video calls and pictures. There is often scepticism about new technology in home care since it is viewed as a major change for many health care providers. Thus, making the implementation process potentially challenging. This is why I have chosen to focus on the implementation research and change management in my thesis. Based on this information, the following research questions are formulated.

1. How do the nurses experience the implementation of KOMP? 2. What experience do the nurses have with implementing welfare technology previously and how do they experience this implementation process?

I have chosen qualitative interview, field notes and field work as an effective way to acquire knowledge about how the nurses experience the implementation of KOMP and their previous experiences with welfare technology implementation in their organization. This master thesis is also inspired by an interpretive view of qualitative methods. The data is analysed using thematic analysis. Here, the essence of the informants’ statements is extracted and discussed in light of implementation theory and the change management theory; ADKAR – Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability and Reinforcement. The findings in this study show that the department was able to implement KOMP. However, my study reveals the pitfall of not rooting such an implementation process throughout all levels of the organization. In addition, I found that there is a need for involving the home care employees more throughout the entire implementation process in order to achieve adequate training and a sense of ownership to the technology and to the process.