Benefits of mobile reporting systems in social home care: the case of seven Swedish municipalities.

OBJECTIVES Mobile systems are widely adopted in healthcare services. Mobile reporting systems have been recently introduced for social home care by municipalities in Sweden. The study aims to assess the benefits of using these systems. METHODS We followed an expert survey approach. Data were collected by means of telephone interviews with the experts in charge of managing and implementing the systems at the municipalities. In addition, several workshops were organized for assessing the economic value of the systems at one municipality. We performed thematic analysis and cost-benefit analysis of the data. RESULTS The thematic analysis showed the three main benefits of using the mobile reporting systems in social home care: municipal benefits, care providers' benefits, and care recipients' benefits. The cost-benefit analysis indicated that the systems could bring substantial long-term economic value for municipalities. The results also revealed the difficulties encountered at the early stage of the deployment and implementation of the systems. CONCLUSIONS The mobile systems yield benefits for all the actors, that is, municipalities, care recipients and care providers. These enhance the public-private coordination and cooperation in social home care in Sweden. The municipalities are called upon to address change management and technical challenges in the implementation.