Integrating an Ambient Assisted Living monitoring system into clinical decision-making in home care: An embedded case study

Background: In Quebec, home care administrators are increasingly open to using Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) technologies as part of services to better support care recipient with a major loss of autonomy. However, little information is available about how these technologies are integrated into clinical practice. Research aim: The present revelatory embedded single-case study aimed to understand how AAL monitoring technologies were integrated in the clinical decision-making process of social and health care professionals to maintain older adults at risk of self-neglect at home (n = 3). Methods: Multiple data collection methods were used for triangulation purposes: semi-structured individual and group interviews, encrypted data from monitoring technologies, medical records, and cognitive and functional evaluations. Data was analyzed using the approach of Miles, Huberman and Saldana (2004). Results: Results show that AAL monitoring technologies were used by social and health care professionals as a means to collect additional and reliable data about home care recipients’ life habits, such as daily patterns related to eating, sleeping, personal care, inactivity and going outside. Professionals wanted to confirm or refute their own hypotheses before developing a comprehensive intervention plan. This information was then used to attribute home care services that correspond to the needs of the care recipient to optimise autonomy and security. Conclusion: Results showed that AAL monitoring technologies provide the professionals with information that would otherwise be inaccessible and are conceptualized as a means of using social and health care resources wisely in a context where resources are scarce.