Box 14 provides a summary of Chapter 9 of this report.
Summary of key points
- The onset of COVID-19 part way through the implementation led to a shift in priorities, with some abandoning the pilot as the focus became managing the effects of the pandemic.
- For those sites that persevered with the pilot, observing the regulations around social distancing delayed the roll-out of the pilot, predominantly because installation of IndependencePlus was interrupted.
- The pandemic did prompt some sites to reflect on the potential benefit of such technologies that employed remote monitoring in future pandemics.
The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic affected the pilot implementation in a number of ways. The most significant was the shift in focus and priorities of care organisations to meet the needs of the local population, both in terms of managing those already within their care and in supporting those discharged from hospital:
People’s focus was elsewhere, you know, people had different drivers at that point. You know, a lot of our social work focus was on supporting hospital discharge because at that point it would get, you know, free up beds in the hospital so that COVID patients could go to the hospitals.
More specifically, the change in working practices brought about by the need to socially distance also directly impacted on the installation of the sensor-based technology. One site had to cancel its plans to send staff to IndependencePlus headquarters for training in installation. It also meant that IndependencePlus staff could not visit the sites to install the sensors.
During the pandemic, IndependencePlus also took the opportunity to make changes to the technology, shifting their focus from behavioural monitoring towards physiological measures relevant to monitoring the symptoms of COVID. This led directly to one site ending the pilot, feeling that its staff were not equipped to monitor and respond to health data. However, moving forward, the experience of COVID led some to recognise the potential advantages of this technology in future waves of the pandemic, where its ability to remotely monitor those forced to isolate would offer reassurance to family members and care providers:
It would have been brilliant during COVID, when you think of all the family members who were having to isolate in their own homes, whose family members were hundreds of miles away, just to have that extra reassurance without constantly nagging somebody to check on them for you. So it’s a shame, because I can see it being of much more use during COVID, when you’re trying to limit those human-to-human contacts.