Defining the Concepts of a Smart Nursing Home and Its Potential Technology Utilities That Integrate Medical Services and Are Acceptable to Stakeholders: a Scoping Review

Abstract

Background and objectives:Smart technology in nursing home settings has potential to elevate an operation that manages a larger number of elderly residents. However, the concepts, definitions and scopes of ‘smartness’, integrated medical services and stakeholders’ acceptability of a smart nursing home are less clear. This scoping review aims to define a smart nursing home and examine the qualitative evidence on technological feasibility, integration of medical services and acceptability of the stakeholders. Methods:Comprehensive searches were conducted on stakeholders’ websites and 11 electronic databases for existing concepts of a smart nursing home (Phase 1), and on what and how technologies and medical services were implemented in nursing home settings, as well as acceptability assessment by the stakeholders (Phase 2). The publication year was inclusive of January 1999 to September 2021. The language was limited to English and Chinese. Included articles must report nursing home settings and related to older adults ≥ 60 years old with or without medical demands but not bed-bound. New technology developments and system designs were measured by Technology Readiness Levels. The analysis was guided by Framework Method and the smart technology adoption behaviours of elder consumers theoretical model, and reported according to the PRISMA-ScR.Results:A total of 177 literature (13 website documents and 164 journal articles) were selected. Smart nursing homes are technology-assisted nursing homes that allow life enjoyment of its residents. They used IoT, computing technologies, cloud computing, big data and AI, information management systems, and digital health to integrate medical services in monitoring abnormal events, assisting daily living, teleconsultation, health information management, and improving interaction between providers and residents. Fifty-five percent of the new technologies were proven ready for use in nursing homes (level 6-7), and the remaining were proven of implementation feasibility (level 1-5). Providers with higher education, tech-savviness, fewer years at work, and older adults with more severe illnesses were more acceptable to smart technologies.Conclusions:Smart nursing homes with integrated medical services have great potential to improve the quality of care and ensure elderly residents’ quality of life.

Global Trends in the Study of Smart Healthcare Systems for the Elderly: Artificial Intelligence Solutions

“…Its fundamental starting point is to manage people's healthcare needs intelligently and to ensure timely access to preventive and curative healthcare services with its advanced technologies in system integration, interconnection, and intelligent processing. This is a higher stage of information technology in healthcare [5,6]. With the goal of a healthy life for people, smart healthcare integrates advanced technologies such as the Internet of Things and artificial intelligence into the medical field to provide people with intelligent medical and health services [7].…”