While the adoption of artificial intelligence and remote monitoring technologies continues to expand within long-term care, 28% of nursing homes failed to scale up, spread, and sustain previously adopted technology systems over a two-year period from 2019 to 2021, according to a new study.
During that same time period, 44% of nursing homes experienced technology growth, while 27% experienced no change in their technology adoption.
The scope of abandoned tech is not merely discontinued services such as outdated software, but rather a failure to provide or nurture certain technologies across an entire facility or organization, according to the study authors from the Sinclair School of Nursing at the University of Missouri and Columbia University’s nursing school. With nursing homes more reliant than ever on technology, conducting analyses on why they abandon tech are as important as studies about tech growth, the researchers stated.
The majority of nursing homes that abandoned administrative technology were larger operations of 120 beds or more, according to the study.
“Technology abandonment can increase strain on scarce resources and may impact administrators’ ability to oversee clinical operations, especially in large nursing homes,” the study authors stated. “This study can serve as a building block for others working to ensure limited resources are used effectively to improve care for nursing home residents.”
While the research doesn’t indicate whether some technology was abandoned to put new, better systems in place, some may have been discontinued to create greater efficiencies, the researchers speculated. They added that other studies have shown tech doesn’t always turn out to improve caregivers’ and staff’s workflow.
The study was published in the Journal of the American Medical Directors Association.
From the December 2023 Issue of McKnight's Long-Term Care News
