Amid record-high withdrawals from the national care service industry in 2023, Aomori Prefecture is pioneering measures through digital transformation (DX). NTT East Japan and local governments have co-developed a care certification app to prepare for workforce shortages. Day service providers are innovating with software to create exercise programs, enhancing care payments and stabilizing management. They aim for nationwide sales in the fiscal year 2024.
In partnership with NTT East Japan, the town of Oowani in Aomori Prefecture has developed an app to streamline care certification processes. The app enables even inexperienced surveyors to conduct comprehensive assessments for potential care insurance service users.
During home visits, surveyors fill out a questionnaire on daily activities and write “special notes” such as “numbness in both legs but can move with effort.” Care certification decisions are made by a review board based on these special notes and doctors’ opinions. Ambiguities in the special notes can necessitate reconfirmation.
The app’s key feature is displaying multiple examples of special notes on a tablet device. Surveyors select the scenario closest to the current situation and adapt phrases accordingly for accurate documentation.
In Oowani, approximately 700 care certification tasks are conducted annually, with one municipal employee handling about 300 cases, and the rest outsourced to care facilities. NTT East Japan has categorized and compiled a vast amount of special notes from municipal employees to use as model examples in the app.
The town’s motivation for developing the app stems from an increase in care insurance users against a backdrop of a declining workforce, as stated by the General Affairs Division. From the fiscal year 2024, in addition to one full-time surveyor, three staff members will be cross-trained for visitation surveys, reducing the reliance on external contracts and easing the burden on private operators. NTT East Japan plans to expand app development to municipalities within its service area in fiscal year 2024.
Nationwide, the care sector is facing a severe labor shortage, leading to an increasing number of business closures. According to a Tokyo Shoko Research study, the number of suspensions, closures, and dissolutions in the elderly welfare and care industry reached a record 510 in 2023. The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare’s revision of the care service fee system (care payments) for fiscal year 2024 emphasizes the urgent need for operational efficiency through ICT (information and communication technology) integration.
Care Smile Aomori, a day service operator in Aomori City, has developed and patented the “4MS System” software to suggest the most suitable rehabilitation menu for users. Even staff without the specialized expertise of a physical therapist can provide quality rehabilitation support. With this system, physical therapists can focus on functional training for users with higher care needs, leading to overall improvement and maintenance of users’ daily living activities (ADL). Facilities dedicated to enhancing ADL standards receive additional care payments, contributing to financial stability.
The system begins by assessing the user’s physical condition with detailed criteria, classifying their ability to control their body into four stages: lying, sitting, standing, and single-leg standing. If the classification is “sitting,” the system further evaluates capabilities from that position, ultimately selecting the most appropriate from 16 exercise menus.
Hiroshi Oosato, President of Care Smile Aomori, states, “We can balance addressing labor shortages with improving the quality of rehabilitation support.” Including system consulting, the company plans to offer the system to nationwide operators by this summer, priced between 2 to 3 million yen.