Quality criteria for innovative care software - basis for reducing the workload of specialised staff in long-term inpatient care?

The aim of the study was to investigate how innovative care software products should be designed in order to realise potential relief. Innovative software products are characterised by their promise to comprehensively support, organise or even automate actual care processes. In this way, they should help to improve the quality of documentation and care and reduce the workload. In addition, relevant dependencies and prerequisites should be identified that support patient care facilities in actually utilising the potential of a digital transformation through the implementation of care software and achieving a reduction in workload. Two central research questions were analysed for this purpose:

1. What functionalities should a new type of care software have in order to create relief potential?

2. What requirements must be met by the facilities and staff in order to actually realise this potential through the use of the software?

To answer these questions, criteria for the quality of new care software products were defined and tailored specifically to the needs of long-term patient care. The criteria were then used to analyse existing software solutions in terms of their actual relief effect during use and thus to evaluate the effectiveness of the care software.