Unique IQ launches new research into digital adoption in home care

In a new piece of research, we have examined the impact and speed of digital adoption in the home care sector by analysing user data from our software from 2016-2021.

We’ve brought together our findings and insight in our report, ‘Transform: A decade of digital transformation in home care’, which looks at sector data in the context of the last decade – with a particular focus on the impact of digital acceleration and the COVID-19 pandemic.

With a customer base that largely consists of home care agencies primarily working within elderly care, we delved into how the numbers of clients, carers and visits, average visit durations and usage of medications, tasks and digital forms have changed – to better understand the challenges that lie ahead.

David Lynes, CEO & Founder, Unique IQ said: “Not only has our research shown that domiciliary care providers are attending more visits than they did five years ago, but the types of visits offered have diversified too.

“10 years ago, the care providers we work with typically offered just one service, usually personal care. Now we see a much broader range of services including live-in care, end-of-life care and dementia-specialist provision.”

The report also looks at the way digital processes were leveraged during the Covid-19 pandemic and we discuss our thoughts on what the future looks like for the sector.

In this report you will learn:

  • How digital adoption has progressed in the care sector over the past ten years
  • The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on digital acceleration 
  • Data that suggest home care providers are diversifying services to cope with changing client needs
  • What the sector needs to maintain digital momentum

Report highlights:

  • 285% increase in the use of digital tasks at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic
  • Domiciliary care providers are attending 110% more visits than five years ago
  • Home care providers are diversifying their service offering, leading to a change in visit pattern durations, including longer visits with live-in care on the increase
  • The unequal pace of growth, with care recipient numbers increasing by 26%, while the number of carers only increasing by 20%