Helsinki wants to be the best functioning city in the world. Above all, functionality means ensuring smooth day-to-day activities and work for city residents and employees. A practical example of facilitating work and improving quality is the new phone application for home care and nursing home workers. The Aina Mukana (Always at Hand) service ensures that an emergency guide and instructions are always available to care workers in urgent situations. The workers can use the service to identify care needs more quickly and efficiently than ever before. This is how the new digital Helsinki works.
By the year 2030, the number of Helsinki residents aged 75 and above is expected to increase by about 70,000. The increasing number of elderly people is challenging the City to develop and organise services for an expanding group of people. At the same time, the focus of elderly care is likely to shift to home care, which is why the City must develop new kinds of care solutions. The education of many nurses in home care and assisted sheltered housing has often neglected the management of emergency situations. This is why care workers need new tools to assist them. Digitally assisted tools and shared operating models also improve the safety of both patients and workers.
The Aina Mukana app clarifies care responsibilities in emergency situations
The aim of the new Aina Mukana phone app is to provide home care and nursing home workers with an efficient tool for identifying patients that are in need of assistance and preparing a quick care assessment in urgent situations. The app also clarifies the care responsibilities in emergency situations and reduces the number of unnecessary first aid alerts and patient transfers to the emergency clinic and the hospital. The goal is to find the best possible method for managing emergency situations in home care and nursing homes. In handling a customer’s emergency, it is important for the nurses to have fast access to care instructions. As the name of the app suggests, the instructions should be always at hand.
“The Aina Mukana app bolsters the ability of each care worker to handle challenging customer encounters and swiftly provide seniors with the help they need. Helsinki has done excellent work in making it possible to bring even smaller ideas to fruition and respond to the needs emerging in the field,” says Project Manager Tuula Lahti.
The Aina Mukana app will be used in Helsinki’s home care services and round-the-clock care at city-owned and outsourced units. The operating guidelines are based on Helsinki’s consulting practices, which means that the app is not directly applicable in other organisations. The basic documentation for the app is a guide, which was previously available in print format but has now been fully incorporated into the app. The app can suggest measures to the care worker based on reported details, such as the patient’s breathing, pulse, blood pressure, level of consciousness and pain, and behaviour.
Helsinki is actively looking for new services to develop based on digital solutions and artificial intelligence
The City of Helsinki is actively looking for new digital and AI-based care solutions in the field of social services and health care and participating in their development. Helsinki also aims to conduct fast customer-oriented trials, along with increasing the opportunities for learning from such trials and mobilising the lessons throughout the City organisation in an efficient manner. The Aina Mukana app is an excellent example of activities that adhere to the City’s goals regarding experimentation.
The app was developed in cooperation by the City’s own Digitalents Helsinki community and, with regard to service design, Finnish Future Oy, which develops web and mobile software.
Learn more about the Aina Mukana app in Finnish at https://sote.azureedge.net(Link leads to external service).