Background

The Danish healthcare sector is currently undergoing major changes. As the number of elderly continues to grow, an increasing share of the Danish population is expected to become users of the Danish healthcare sector. Consequently, it is likely that tomorrow's healthcare sector will see more hospitals carrying out short and intensive courses of treatment with subsequent long-term care programmes including convalescence and rehabilitation at home. The new way of organising healthcare will require an increasing amount of documentation to be produced in the user's own home. The higher need for documentation demands a certain level of literacy of the staff involved e.g. in order to orient themselves in journal entries and to add new documentation.

Today, almost 40 per cent of all patient complaints filed in Denmark are due to misunderstandings stemming from poor or inadequate communication. Especially communication in writing is characterised by errors and omissions leading to faulty or direct useless communication. Some health professionals are having problems communicating in writing. Such problems can stem from literacy challenges, dyslexia or non-Danish origin, making it difficult for them to express themselves in Danish. It is estimated that up to 20% of the Danish population have reading and writing difficulties. Reading and writing difficulties experienced by social and healthcare personnel often result in written communication that is brief, absent or characterised by linguistic errors.

Purpose

The project aims to identify the potentials of a literacy tool that can support a person's writing abilities by suggesting workplace-relevant words. In the future, the above challenges will be ever more present due to the increasing use of written documentation in relation to care-requiring citizens. A concept like the patient diary is gaining ground, and if it is to become a meaningful concept, the communication involved must be of sufficiently high quality. In addition, the project will clarify the need for product adaptation and integration with existing municipal documentation systems.

The project will also develop a tool that can work on different digital platforms and integrate with existing ECR (Electronic Care Records) systems.

Expected results

Development of a tool that can make clinical documentation easy and fast while helping staff suffering from e.g. dyslexia to produce high-quality documentation.

The improved documentation can be used to ensure a more coherent care as well as additional rehabilitative and preventive activities - for example in the event of indications of increased risk of falls.