With its future fund, AK OÖ promoted improvements in digital care documentation in old people's and nursing homes

2023-05-19 06:23:33

Linz – Employees in retirement and nursing homes are exposed to great stress at work. One of them was the digital care documentation, which took up too much time. The aim of a pilot project running from 2019 to 2021 was to make this nursing documentation easier for employees. The necessary measures have now been implemented for around 7,000 employees in old people’s and nursing homes throughout Upper Austria. The AK assumed 50 percent of the costs.

A study by the Chamber of Labor showed that up to 30 percent of the working time in nursing has to be used for documentation. There was an urgent need for action here. After an in-depth analysis and evaluation workshops with the employees, the newly designed digital documentation was first extensively tested in a pilot project in the Sonnenhof retirement home in Linz and then in selected other homes. The improvements have now been implemented together with the works councils of the old people’s and nursing homes throughout Upper Austria.

„The documentation of everyday care actions is now much faster. We no longer have to enter everything individually“, says Peter Kopf, Central Works Council of APH GmbH of the Franciscan Sisters of Vöcklabruck. Categories such as mobilization from bed, assistance with going to the toilet, dressing and undressing and assistance with breakfast can be recorded with a single click. And non-descriptive entries such as “residents are fine” are omitted. In addition, the categories in the nursing report could be reduced from a total of 30 to 8.

„These improvements reduce burdensome documentation work. The involvement of the home supervisor and the employees resulted in a solution that was accepted by all those affected. It is therefore also a prime example of digitization that benefits employees“, says AK President Andreas Stangl. Around 7,000 employees in 131 retirement and nursing homes in Upper Austria can now use the new system. A monthly exchange of users from the various institutions ensures sustainable implementation. Inquiries from other federal states show that this project represents an important step for future care.

The AK-Zukunftsfonds supports digitization projects

Since spring 2019, 170 projects throughout Upper Austria have been supported with the AK Future Fund. Projects are funded that do not focus on profits but on people. Applications can be submitted again until September 22, 2023. All information below arbeitmenschendigital.at.

A photo for download can be found here.

Caption: from left to right Martin König (Social Network GmbH), Roland Freilinger (Management APH Rainbach St. Elisabeth), Peter Kopf (Central Works Council APH GmbH of the Franziskanerinnen von Vöcklabruck), Andreas Stangl (AK President)

Photo credit: AKOÖ Wolfgang Spitzbart