Health monitoring, intelligent alarm, and responding to needs, the elderly can enjoy all-round care at home similar to the real nursing home
Home "virtual nursing home" pilot, are you willing to pay
Our reporter Huang Yongdi
Early spring is the season when the elderly are prone to asthma and other basic diseases.
A few days ago, Zhang Lianfa, an 81-year-old man who lives in Aibo No. 4 Village in Minhang District, felt short of breath and quickly called the call for help on his wristband.
A few minutes later, the paired community housekeeper Xiao Gu and the nurse from the Xinhong Street Comprehensive Old Service Center came to the door together and assisted with oxygen inhalation operations and medication, which made the old man recover quickly.
This is not an exception.
In the comprehensive old service center of Xinhong Street, a large information screen "links" the safety and health status of hundreds of home-based elderly people distributed in various neighborhood committees in the street in real time.
Whether the elderly are in bed, how long they sleep, how long they have been away from the bed or home, and whether their heart rate and blood pressure are within the normal range are all monitored 24 hours a day; if the elderly have an emergency at home or have a need for help, someone will respond immediately, if necessary Fast door-to-door service.
"Install sensing equipment and smart products at home to realize linkage with the elderly care service station at the door of the house, so that the elderly can enjoy all-round care at home similar to the real nursing home" - this is the pilot construction of Xinhong Street in Minhang District The home-based "virtual nursing home" currently covers more than 200 empty-nesters, elderly people living alone, incapacitated and demented elderly people in the streets.
In the city's "9073" elderly care service pattern, the vast majority of elderly people choose home care for the elderly.
Such a home "virtual nursing home" can not only satisfy the wish of "staying at home for the elderly", but also improve the quality of life of the elderly and reduce the pressure of institutional care.
However, the reporter found that although the people applauded this new model, it is still difficult to further promote the application and make people willing to "pay".
Children are not around, or living alone, getting older and more powerless... Even for the usually relatively healthy elderly, there are certain safety hazards in home care.
"Once, when I was taking medicine, the capsule got stuck in my throat, fell on the floor and fainted. When I woke up, I found that my head was bleeding." The 89-year-old grandpa Su talked about the plight of living alone at home, and bluntly said that he was really scared.
Therefore, not long after the launch of the home "virtual nursing home" in Xinhong Street, Grandpa Su took the initiative to equip digital devices such as smart watches and smart monitoring mattresses.
Now, after using it for more than a year, Grandpa Su has a sense of security: "In the past, when there was an urgent matter, there was nothing I could do by myself; now in an emergency, the community housekeeper can be called directly by pressing the watch, and they will come to the door immediately. Yes, very reliable."
What is the function of the intelligent monitoring mattress?
At the home of Uncle Zhang Lianfa, his wife Aunt Chen and the community housekeeper Xiao Gu lifted up the sheets together and showed the reporter a long strip of smart device, which was mainly placed in the position of the heart of the old man after he lay down to automatically monitor the heart rate of the old man while he was sleeping. out of bed, etc.
Uncle Zhang's heart is not good, this device is very necessary. Once the monitoring data is abnormal, such as the delay in returning after getting up at night, there is a risk of falling or fainting, the monitoring platform will issue an alarm, and the background housekeeper will contact the elderly or the elderly in time. family.
According to reports, Uncle Zhang's mattress is a basic product with a market price of two or three hundred yuan.
There are also smart mattresses with richer functions, such as electronically controlled three-stage lifts, as well as smart bed controls such as sleep monitoring and one-key calling, with prices ranging from hundreds, thousands, and tens of thousands of yuan.
"All smart devices are selected by us, and they must be more suitable for the elderly while having the required functions, and they must also be cost-effective." The third-party operating unit of the Xinhong Street Smart Elderly Care Service Project - Shanghai Heng Yang Hua, manager of the IT department of R&D’s old service agency, told reporters that taking the intelligent monitoring mattress as an example, the mattress finally presented in the model room was selected from more than 300 monitoring mattresses on the market, and it has the ability to automatically monitor the heart rate of the elderly. , out of bed, daily sleep report generation and other functions.
The smart devices installed in Uncle Zhang's house are the "three-piece sets" currently chosen by most elderly people, including door sensors, smart bracelets, and smart mattresses.
The door sensor is installed on the top of the entrance door, and usually monitors the entry and exit habits of the elderly. If the elderly does not go out for a whole day or more, it will attract the attention of the background.
When the reporter interviewed the old service center in Xinhong Street, a red "fall alarm reminder" automatically popped up on the big screen, which displayed the name of the old man, the alarm time, and the alarm equipment.
The backstage service staff immediately called the old man and found out that it was a false alarm after learning about the situation.
It turned out that the old man was cooking in the kitchen. Because the wrist movement was too fast, the smart bracelet judged it as "abnormal acceleration" through posture monitoring, so the alarm for falling was issued.
There are also "four-piece sets" installed in the homes of the elderly, adding gas alarm equipment.
Some elderly people often forget to turn off the fire when cooking. When the critical point is reached, the smart device will send an alarm, not only to remind the elderly, but also to notify the background service personnel.
If there is a gas leak, it will be detected in time.
"With the aging of the population, especially the aging of the first generation of parents with only one child, the need for multi-level and diversified elderly care services is more urgent. Digital transformation brings new opportunities to improve the level of home-based elderly care services." Minhang District Civil Affairs Bureau Wu Xuenian, head of the Elderly Care Service Department, told reporters that the home-based "virtual nursing home" piloted in Minhang mainly adopts the method of government guidance and third-party organization to establish a smart elderly care service platform, so that family elderly care beds have the function of "quasi-organization".
According to statistics, there are 12,158 elderly people over the age of 60 in Xinhong Street. They have piloted the installation of 208 smart monitoring mattresses and 323 smart watches in the homes of empty nesters, elderly people living alone, and those with disabilities, etc., to provide remote medication reminders. , 24-hour services such as blood pressure and heart rate measurement, positioning, monitoring of elderly sleep quality and health data, and early warning of leaving bed.
So far, the Xinhong Sub-district area has achieved 106 "virtual elderly care beds" at home, with more than 14,000 door-to-door service orders.
The reporter saw that in the service work order of more than 14,000 person-times, the alarm for leaving the bed and not returning is the first; the second is the blood pressure alarm, accounting for more than 40%; the second is the bracelet SOS alarm, the door sensor Detection alarms, fence alarms, fall alarms, etc., all account for single-digit percentages.
"Home-based smart old-age care is the future trend of social development. In the future, whether it is the elderly living alone, the disabled and the mentally ill, or a large number of ordinary healthy old people, in fact, they all hope to have higher-quality and more diversified intelligent old-age care services. Therefore, we hope to show some good smart application scenarios, so that more and more community residents can understand and accept these service projects." said Gu Binhuan, director of Xinhong Street Community Service Office.
Today, in the comprehensive old service center of Xinhong Street, a "model room" that can be visited and experienced by the elderly has been built, and a whole set of smart home environment for the elderly has been restored on site, including living room, bedroom, kitchen, entrance, bathroom, etc. In multiple smart scenarios, the elderly can easily control the device through the intelligent voice control system as long as they master the basic password.
"Open the curtains", "Turn off the TV", "Turn off the lights"... Every time, the elderly who come to the "model room" to experience and visit are very excited, and the smart application "named" in the room starts to work with the words.
It is understood that due to the dual control of price and quality, the basic package price of the home "virtual nursing home" piloted in Xinhong Street in Minhang District is not expensive. The elderly pay 598 yuan per month to enjoy the services including smart guarding, housekeeping, etc. Services, health care, spiritual comfort and other projects.
Of course, if the elderly need other personalized services, such as cleaning services, bath assistance services, meal assistance services, agency services, escort services, etc., they can also be freely combined after being marked on the list, and they will enjoy more favorable prices than market prices. service fee.
The home-based "virtual nursing home" piloted by Xinhong Sub-district combines three types of elderly care: home-based elderly care, community elderly care and institutional elderly care, and strives to explore the "six care integration" of nursing care, medical care, health care, cultural care, physical care and smart care. ”, hoping to realize the old people’s home-based care and the old-age care.
For example, Mr. Zhang Lianfa, in addition to enjoying smart elderly care services at home, goes to the day care center next to the community to chat and rest every day.
"As long as 8 yuan, today's dishes include wild roast pork, chicken feet, yam and fungus, one large meat and one small meat, one vegetable, one soup and one rice. My wife and I can eat it together to eat all; You have to eat a snack, sometimes it’s battered noodles, sometimes it’s vegetable porridge or eight-treasure porridge.” Mr. Zhang said that such a day care service costs only 300 yuan per month.
After Mr. Zhang's asthma attack a few days ago, the community housekeeper not only came to the door to provide emergency treatment for Mr. Zhang, but also helped to make an appointment for the outpatient service of the community health service center the next day.
"It can be seen that home medical care, community-embedded care, and institutional care are not separate." Wu Xuenian introduced that in Xinhong Street, third-party institutions also undertake the operational tasks of home care, community care, and institutional care. With the help of the smart elderly care service platform, the integrated management of service resources can be realized, and the elderly can customize the elderly care model according to their own needs.
"In this way, we can dispatch community housekeepers and nursing staff nearby, and arrive at the elderly's house in 5 to 10 minutes. The elderly need services such as cleaning, bathing assistance, and meal delivery, and we can also integrate social resources in a timely manner." Tuo Xinyong, deputy general manager of the old service agency, introduced that if the elderly’s physical condition allows them to stay at home, they can choose to stay at home for medical care; if the elderly need a rich cultural and recreational life, they can come to participate in the activities of the comprehensive service center for the elderly and the neighborhood center; Hengyan can also help refer to hospitals or elderly care institutions when people have physical problems and need postoperative rehabilitation and long-term care, or when children need respite services.
The 87-year-old grandma Du and her 89-year-old wife are living at home together.
In their lives, the two models of home-based care and community-based care are perfectly combined.
The two elderly people's homes are equipped with smart home care systems such as remote monitoring, smart mattresses, emergency calls, fall alarms, and water, electricity, and coal alarms.
In their spare time, they will go to the comprehensive old service center in the street to exercise and recuperate in the multi-functional fitness center; in the handicraft workshop, they will make scarves, backpacks and Lego handicrafts; in the family doctor pension consultant studio, they will consult health problems; Community "smart canteen", enjoy meals suitable for the taste of the elderly...
Grandma Du said: "We are very happy now. My son and daughter often call to ask. I said that after the smart device is installed in the house, it is very safe. If there is a problem, the staff will come to the door in time. They will also come to deliver fruit and clean the house. We are at ease when we are not around.”
Why is it difficult to promote?
■Smart old age care is not a technical problem, but technical integration and background services are difficult
■Many elderly people are more frugal, and their consumption concepts still need to be nurtured and guided
At present, Minhang District has promoted home-based "virtual nursing homes" in various streets and towns.
When the staff distributed leaflets and conducted demand research in each community, the elderly in the community expressed their "needs" and showed great interest in various scenarios, but when asked if they would buy services, everyone shook their heads.
The reporter learned that at present, Minhang District has equipped 300 eligible or in-demand elderly families with smart devices and 3,900 elderly people with smart watches.
But most of them are paid for or subsidized by the government, and only a very few households voluntarily purchase services.
"The consumption concept of the elderly still needs to be cultivated and guided. There is a process." Wu Xuenian believes that many elderly people are more frugal and do not think too much when they are in good health. Moreover, they do not know much about smart products, and even have Fear of psychology, so it is necessary to carry out pilots and demonstrations first, show them to everyone, and then gradually promote them to marketization. "With the passage of time, the upgrading of consumption concepts and the development of a new generation of elderly, smart elderly care will be the general trend."
For people in the industry, smart old-age care is no longer a technical problem, but technical integration and back-end services are difficult.
Tuo Xinyong said frankly that there are various smart products on the market now, but there are not many cost-effective products, and the degree of aging is not enough. Repeated comparison experiments in the application to find the most economical and most suitable integrated solution for the elderly.
Background services are even more important.
Otherwise, smart devices are installed in the home of the elderly, but no one provides 24-hour response and door-to-door service, etc., and "virtual nursing homes" will become empty words.
Therefore, in addition to building a big data platform, third-party companies also need to build a 5-10-minute emergency response circle in the region. The construction of the service network and the layout of personnel are a difficult problem.
If the customer base is not large enough, operating costs will remain high.
At Zhang Lianfa's uncle's house, the reporter saw that the community housekeeper Gu Haiyan had been chatting with the two elderly people, laughing continuously throughout the whole process. The elderly man repeatedly thanked her for recommending a delicious rice noodle. Wear a mask and remember to wash your hands when you get home."
Such service "stickiness" is the core selling point of "virtual nursing homes", and it is also the most scarce.
In addition, because the current market space for smart elderly care is still small, and the iteration of intelligent products is too fast, the enthusiasm of enterprises to invest is not high, which leads to a relatively lag in product development and integration research of smart elderly care, which in turn will affect it. promotion and application.