Remote Monitoring, Local Adaptation : A comparative case study of technology implementation and continued use in elderly care

Sammanfattning

Welfare technologies have been proposed as one solution to address the challenges of elderly care, yet they often fail to meet expectations after rollout. Although their implementation has been studied widely, less is known about how local conditions shape implementation and use of remote monitoring alarm systems. Based on a comparative case study with 11 semi-structured interviews, this study examines how local conditions shaped implementation and use across two nursing homes in a Swedish municipality that experienced different implementation outcomes from the same remote monitoring alarm system. Through a deductive framework analysis, the findings indicate that dependence on local alarm agent competence, conditions for mutual adaptation between care work and technology, and mismatches between local support needs, infrastructure, and available support affected implementation outcomes. The study contributes to research on welfare technology by showing how remote monitoring alarm systems become differently integrated into care work through ongoing local adaptation after rollout. The findings of this study are of value for practitioners implementing welfare technologies in nursing homes by highlighting the need for sustained local competence, clear support structures, ongoing training, and continued adaptation after rollout.