The home service in Drammen municipality got rid of yellow notes and whiteboards with the IKOS interaction board

Is everyday life characterized by many tasks and priorities, and complex disease patterns for patients, and employees with different job percentages?

IKOS is a service that provides support for work processes in real time, for employees and managers in municipal health and care services. The digital interaction board can be used by home nursing, nursing homes, services for the disabled, substance abuse/mental health services, cross-functional teams and the office for service allocation.

The IKOS gathers everything in one place

Drammen Municipality got started with IKOS in May 2019. It was a department in the home service that was the first, and Agathe Nevermo Rogstad is the head of this department. The other department that uses IKOS is led by Anette Kristine Petersen.

- Our department has a large volume of both patients and staff, so it is important to have a good structure so that operations are flexible and well-organised. Good operations create greater well-being and job satisfaction, says Agathe.

- Before IKOS came, we were unable to have a good enough overview of everything that had to be followed up. There was therefore a lot of frustration with both employees and department heads. We had the experience of being "behind", admits Agathe.

Today, all checklists, message books, and whiteboards are gone from Agathe's department. Everything is now gathered in one place inside the IKOS board.

Better organization of information

- There is better organization of the employees' everyday life, and easier navigation for the managers. The tool is now so well incorporated, that after a network error for a few days, the department really got to know what it was like without the support from IKOS. It was demanding not to have the overview, and it was an awareness of how much the board relieves the employees, says Agathe.

Change management

When introducing IKOS, raising awareness of change management is important.

- It does not necessarily require a lot of resources to introduce IKOS, but it is important that managers focus on using the tool and that the daily routines of employees are changed. Connecting employees at the right time is invaluable. It is also important to adapt IKOS along the way so that the tool can be optimized for the department's needs, says Agathe.

An example of this is that in Agathe's department, the tasks in IKOS are now medically oriented. The tasks that are not of a medical nature are taken care of on hand-held devices, such as remembering support stockings for visits.

In the picture: Hanna Elisabeth Lynnebakken and Anette Gustavsen Humlebekk. Both are professional coordinating nurses in the home care service and each work in a department that uses IKOS in Drammen municipality.

The complex patient needs are demanding

New reports show that patients today have far more complex health needs than in the past.

Marit Strandquist, the developer of IKOS and senior advisor at Sensio, believes that nurses and health professionals face challenges due to the increase in elderly patients, chronic illnesses, mental disorders, drug addiction, and patients from minority backgrounds.

- The departments try to get an overview of what needs to be prioritized on whiteboards, yellow notes, and in notice books, but there is no room for all the users and everything that needs to be remembered in these tools, says Strandquist, who has over 20 years of experience in managing research - and development projects for quality within the municipal health service.