The challenges facing UK care providers are widely known. Demand for care beds is outstripping supply. Staff shortages, chronic underfunding, rising demand driven by an ageing population and complex care needs are blighting the sector. These issues are amplified by the fact that at its core, the sector remains predominantly analogue, with several critical workflows still reliant on paper and manual processes, including medication.
Yet amidst this, a perceptible change is emerging. Software-as-a-service (SaaS) providers are simplifying the most complex of services and making a tangible difference to resident outcomes. With the wave of software providers entering the market set to grow, investors are taking notice.
Lagging behind
So, what are the salient features of this wave of technology adoption? Let’s begin with the problems digitisation is seeking to address. Adult social care remains broadly analogue. For instance, medication rounds are still paper based for most care settings, with staff spending hours manually tracking which medicines must be given and when. That leaves the system prone to human error, which can have catastrophic consequences for residents.
Compared to industries like commerce, which digitised in the dot-com boom in the 1990s, it is surprising how far behind adult social care remains in adopting digital technology and innovation. We often see that the social care industry is lagging 10-15 years behind these other sectors that have in the past produced extraordinary returns for innovators and venture capital. It is behind the curve in a world where technology has touched every part of our lives.
Steady progress
The digitisation of the social care sector has created a wave of software providers that are seeking to change the industry. Take medication as an example, sector software providers are aiming to reshape essential elements of care delivery, such as medication management, with electronic medication administration (eMAR) platforms.
Technology such as proxy ordering, integrated vitals and medication workflow, PRN follow-ups, rotating body map and point of care medication administration are supercharging front-line caregivers and managers to provide superior and safer care while improving efficiency. eMAR is a tangible example of best-in-class technology solving a practical problem encountered daily by frontline staff.
Partnership opportunities
But it is not the only technology solution that is driving transformation in adult social care.
Take the ‘Digitising Social Care Records Programme’, for example. It aims for all CQC-registered adult social care providers to have access to a Digital Social Care Record (DSCR) that can digitally interoperate with a Local Shared Care Record. These records will play an essential role in joining up health and care services. They will facilitate real-time information sharing between different parts of the health service, save professionals time and deliver safer, better care by reducing risks and integrating disparate parts of the system.
But achieving this will require greater partnership with private sector software providers. Their technical expertise combined with a capacity to create an all-encompassing digital platform with safeguards will be critical to creating a national DSCR service. Alongside this, care providers are already navigating a crowded marketplace, including solutions on the NHS assured supplier lists for DSCR and care planning, making selection complex and time consuming for care providers.
What does this mean?
I believe we are on the cusp of a huge technology boom for social care. One comparable to the advancement of e-commerce and social networks during the dot.com era. Adult social care is only now beginning a similar journey, with growing willingness among investors, operators and backers to drive change.
The growing involvement of technology innovators in a sector with historically low levels of technology investment is a game changer. With strong fundamentals underpinning care providers, the significance of SaaS businesses is akin to the disruption caused in online shopping and consumer products in the 1990s. Those online platforms forced consumers to rethink how they bought and sold goods, while also establishing a degree of convenience previously unimaginable. The involvement of technology in the delivery of social care is forcing a similar change.
Challenges for adoption
Investment is increasingly flowing into social care, with venture capital aiming to drive innovation in the sector. This surge in funding is creating a new wave of solutions, which has clear benefits but also poses challenges for adoption. The sheer number of solutions can overwhelm care providers who must evaluate usability, interoperability and assurance status while also continuing to deliver care.
For example, the NHS has a list of up to 45 care planning software systems and choosing the right technology now becomes a challenge in itself before implementation. Additionally, care providers are increasingly choosing a suite of multiple software (a care technology stack if you will) to work together to deliver superior efficiency, which is another headwind when the technology space is highly fragmented.
Future market trends
For many care providers, this growing list of technology providers can be overwhelming. Ultimately, software providers that deliver tangible results, have a track record and real frontline experience in care delivery will stand out. Choosing a provider who understands the day-to-day realities ‘in the trenches’ of care delivery and is backed by a deeply experienced team is winning half of the battle.
As the market reaches a saturation point whereby the number of solutions becomes too numerous, disparate and scattered, a structural trend for consolidation will appear. I expect that the sector will see rapid amalgamation over the next five years across care software through mergers and acquisitions.
The expansion and consolidation in the software provider space will mark maturity in the sector as well. In this process, many new technologies will become available, and more innovators will be looking at the sector than ever before, resulting in a golden age of technology revolution for care.
Increasing technology adoption creates the necessary conditions for responsible uses of AI and machine learning to support clinicians and care workers, where appropriate, not replace them. This should spur on the development of innovative systems and software which can fundamentally alter care outcomes, representing a new, previously unexplored horizon for adult social care in the UK.
Reimagining care delivery
So, what are we to make of all these developments? There is no doubt that the challenges facing the adult social care sector are stark and in need of rapid resolution. We are an ageing society and our provisions are under significant strain. Medication in care remains analogue and woefully behind, often managed through paper records. Yet other areas of healthcare have been transformed by technology.
I believe the only way to overcome these challenges is to reimagine how we deliver care. Part of this entails introducing technology that can ease the burdens and pressures encountered in homes daily. That will require willingness from care providers to adopt and put resources into digitisation, an increasing necessity rather than a luxury.
The attention from investors on the social care software space will incentivise innovators to build more new solutions for care. Sector software providers are revolutionising the industry through the digitisation of daily functions, improving outcomes and enhancing the delivery of social care, making it better and safer for everyone.
What are your predictions for the future of technology adoption in the sector? Leave a comment on this feature or join the conversation to share your thoughts.
Kehan Zhou is Chief Executive Officer at Camascope. Email: @[email protected] X: @KehanZhou1