FLOORING


Not only that, it helps them to learn patterns of behaviour and informs an understanding of how they can prevent any harm in the future.


Operating since 2008 out of Helsinki, MariCare currently offers two sensor technologies like the Smart Floor for use in healthcare and care home scenarios: the Elsi® – the company’s primary product, ideal for installation into the floors of brand new healthcare facilities during renovations – and the wireless eLea™ – detectors that can be installed into existing facilities without the need for building renovation.


LEARNING FROM


CUSTOMERS MariCare’s Smart Floors are far from a simple packaged product that, once bought, are simply handed over to the customer. MariCare has been highly active in attaining feedback that can guide its research and development further still.


We are in a continuous partnership with our customers: public-private innovation as we like to call it. Since the Smart Floors first became widely popular in Denmark, we have established a working group consisting of ourselves and our customers, whereby we meet on a quarterly basis to discuss the challenges the customers face, and how we can work together to overcome them through healthcare technology.


In addition to this, we have worked closely with universities and the Nordic Welfare Centre – comprising government representatives from all the Nordic countries – to carry out research and gather useful data. MariCare, government bodies, universities and customers – all learning from each other to improve both the product and the standard of care.


“TODAY, THE SMART


FLOOR SAVED A LIFE…” The company’s close collaboration with its customers is of undoubted benefit, creating a mutual trust that has driven improvements in the technology that ultimately raise


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the quality of living for patients and residents, whilst reducing any risks that they might encounter.


Every two weeks or so, a customer calls me directly to say, ‘today, the Smart Floor saved a life’, which of course is extremely encouraging to hear.


One nurse called me with a particular story. A lady in one of her apartments, who was in quite good shape, had fallen and hit her head on a sharp piece of furniture. She could not raise the alarm because it had knocked her unconscious and she began bleeding heavily. Of course, this was a critical situation.


Fortunately, the Smart Floor detected and alarmed the fall almost instantaneously and the nurses were quickly at the scene. Whilst they could not stop the bleeding themselves, it allowed them enough time to call for the ambulance to take her to hospital, stop the bleeding and save her life.


But the system’s benefits stretch beyond the detection of falls. Through the analysis of residents’ behavioural patterns, doctors and nurses can gain far greater insight into problems that they might not have known existed.


One example I can give is from France, where the Elsi® Smart Floor was installed in a ward with 12 apartments at a brand new care home. I was there personally to oversee the commissioning after the system had been installed and the residents had been moved back in. The manager of the ward came to me and I offered to do a demonstration on my tablet through the system’s wireless.


I played back the previous night’s activity from 11pm to 7am at x50 speed to show how the residents were moving around the apartment throughout the night – going to the bathroom, placing their feet onto the floor, or when they entered and exited the rooms. One particular room got my attention: it was occupied by an elderly lady who was going to the toilet two to three times an hour. For this lady, it was important she slept comfortably or she would be at high risk of falling the next day.


Obviously, something was not right,


but when the doctor and ward manager went into see her she said that she had slept the whole night. After taking a precautionary sample of urine, it turned out that she had a serious urinary infection that, if left undetected, could have killed her or at the very least led to a lengthy spell in hospital.


It is the detection of these unusual changes in behaviour that is as one of the Smart Floor’s greatest strengths. You cannot have two eyes in each apartment 24/7 and the vast majority of residents would not feel comfortable with cameras inside their rooms. Behavioural analysis is vital. Our Smart Floors record and store data from the previous three months, which helps the nurses to learn more about their patients and residents and adapt their care strategies accordingly.


THE ‘INVISIBLE’ NURSE The success of healthcare technology


is dependent on far more than the product itself; the implementation and training that follows are fundamental. So far the system has been widely embraced by nursing staff, despite initial scepticism as to its usability.


Whilst some nurses might be a little uncomfortable with the technology at first, after 45 minutes of training, they turn around and say ‘oh, it was that easy? It is intuitive to use – they can set up reports, review nightly events; they can even turn on a resident’s nightlight when they spot them getting up to go to the toilet.


WIDENING THE SMART


FLOOR COMMUNITY Already acclaimed in the Nordic countries, MariCare is now expanding its reach across the rest of Europe, particularly in the UK, France, Germany and the Benelux region. From an already strong platform, We hope that MariCare will soon be able to build a wider community of customer working groups that consider and overcome different regional challenges.


www.maricare.com TOMORROW’S FM | 39


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