The single most overlooked condition for living at home independently...
Burglaries, lost keys, and lost PIN codes: over the past eighteen months, I've spoken to countless clients, healthcare providers and close to sixty-five lock manufacturers in the Netherlands and abroad to find a solution to the key problem in home care. In this post, I'll share their stories. What problems did they encounter? And how do I think this problem can be solved?
A promise to my grandmother
My grandmother passed away a few years ago. She was a sweet woman who was always there for us. She was also extremely attached to her home and her own environment. When my grandfather died several years before, she decided to stay at home and set up a home security system. It soon became apparent that she needed more intensive care.
"All I read about these days is how unsafe the world is. And that thing on my door just screams 'old lady who needs help.'" Worried, she called me one day to say: "Daan, the home care people told me I need to install a key safe because I can't get to the door fast enough. All I read about these days is how unsafe the world is. And that thing on my door just screams 'old lady who needs help.'" There was nothing I could say to reassure her.
BlackOps project
The thing that bothered me most was that she was right and I couldn't do a thing about it. There were plenty of solutions out there, but very few home care organizations could afford them due to a lack of policy regulations. Master keys were no longer an option due to the multitude of small-scale district teams.
Something had to change.
A small FocusCura team – BlackOps 'cKey' – met with clients and healthcare providers in the hope of finding the perfect key solution.
Client stories
We started by meeting with the clients themselves. After all, they're the ones who need to feel safe and secure. What do they find important? We quickly realized that a key system was an emotional hot topic.
My physical key
The first thing nearly all elderly clients mention is that they want to be able to open their front door with a physical key. This is perfectly reasonable; there's something nice about having a real key. You get it from a real estate broker, under the watchful eye of a notary, and the transfer process is more than just symbolic. Many elderly people attach a lot of importance to it.
Arthritic hands
But this emotional attachment extends beyond the key itself. Replacing a lock requires a lot of demolition and the exterior paintwork is considered positively sacred by many senior citizens. And what happens after a key system has been installed?
Following tests in our Futurelab, it quickly became clear that many key systems are simply not suitable for the elderly. Many have smooth rotary systems on the inside of the door, which are hard to operate with arthritic hands.
That's not to mention the batteries, which need to be charged regularly. What happens if you come home and the batteries are dead?
Safety first
Many older people are familiar with the warnings issued by Unie KBO, an association for senior citizens in the Netherlands. Over the past two years, this association has alerted the media about unsafe key systems. They even managed to raise the issue with the Dutch parliament.
"Research conducted by regional newspapers found that 649 senior citizens were the victims of home invasions last year after their key safe was cracked. Incidents like these are becoming increasingly common, as many home care organizations are making key safes mandatory." Source: Radar.
Freedom of choice leads to more control
"Senior citizens want to be given a choice" Senior citizens want to be given a choice, instead of being forced to buy a specific type of key system. Some people refuse to pay more than a few euros a month, while others are willing to invest more in an invisible system. The needs are extremely diverse, to say the least.
In short, the ideal solution has to meet the client's preferences, has to meet the specifications of the front door, and has to be SKG-certified. A physical key for the client would be an added bonus!
The perspective of healthcare providers
Healthcare providers encounter their own key-related problems every day. We surveyed their experiences as well, some of which have been included below.
Lost PIN codes
To find out how things work in practice, I joined a district nurse on her evening shift. It was a quiet night. At 9:30 PM the hospital called and asked us to check on an elderly woman. When we arrived, the nurse began digging through her purse to find the list of PIN codes she'd made of all the key safes in the region. She found it and entered the client's code.
En route to the next client, she looked for her list and was shocked to find that it was no longer in her purse. She'd lost all of the PIN codes.
Fortunately, she'd left it on the table at her previous client's house. But what if it had ended up in the wrong hands?
No regional master key
Another situation arose when I was holding a lecture in a region that collaborates in the field of acute care. Instead of creating individual acute teams per healthcare organization, they appointed an umbrella team for the entire region.
"Unfortunately, the team still faces major access problems, as no regional standard has been developed." Unfortunately, the team still faces major access problems, as no regional standard has been developed. Some healthcare organizations use PIN-activated safes, others use Clavisio safes, and others still use electronic cylinders.
This is problematic for the acute teams because they have to carry various keys from various organizations and neighborhoods – an extremely unsafe situation given that they work day and night. What would happen if a team member was robbed?
Key safes in a central entryway. Image by FocusCura.
Complicated app
Fortunately there are also innovations. We assessed some of them and I was particularly interested in the story of a nurse who participated in a key system pilot study. As part of the study, an app was installed on her smartphone to give her access to her clients' homes. She looked forward to getting started and was happy to leave her access problems behind her.
Several weeks later we were sent a report. Things didn't look good.
As it happens, the overly complicated app made her want to smash her phone. She first had to enter various codes, find the relevant client in a list, and then perform several follow-up steps. The entire process took several minutes to complete, which wastes precious time when you're standing in front of a client's door.
Many-headed monster...
"Finding the perfect key solution is like slaying a many-headed monster..." These are just a few of the stories we were sent. Others involved the careless management of master keys and discussions with clients about who had entered their home after a system failure.
And then there's the issue of temporary employees. How do you make sure they can enter a client's home safely?
There's also the equally valid issue of costs, now that the policy rules have been abolished and clients are required to pay for these services themselves. How do you provide affordable services without too much red tape?
Finding the perfect key solution is like slaying a many-headed monster...
Think Different: a key family
To be honest, we'd almost given up hope when, on an ordinary Friday afternoon in our Futurelab, we suddenly realized what we were doing wrong. We were trying to come up with one solution that would work for everyone, when the actual solution was what we now refer to as a "key family".
This multi-faceted solution gives clients the safety and security they need and gives healthcare professionals an innovative and user-friendly app. This solution is supported by our Service Desk, which is responsible for managing the virtual keys. Sound futuristic? We're currently introducing it to our healthcare partners in the Netherlands and Belgium. Here's a sneak preview.
If you've encountered one of the above problems or would like to respond to our solution, please feel free to contact me on LinkedIn and Twitter.
