Jan-Kees van Wijnen
When we, together with Aunt Louise, dramatically improved the quality of life for people with dementia in 2014 through a combination of technological and social innovation, there was a great drive within the organization to continue this and raise the bar even higher. Not because it could, but because it had to. The need to innovate was quickly recognized given the challenges that healthcare faced and still faces; an increasing demand for care and a shortage on the labor market because the employees required to meet this demand for care are simply 'not born'.
The 'virus' to innovate then also got hold of me and we soon not only focused on innovations for our clients, but also focused on our employees. We call this working differently in healthcare, with a focus on labor-saving innovations that also improve the quality of care and help control healthcare costs. These are the 3 criteria that innovations must meet, preferably used in labor-intensive tasks (such as 'wound care' or 'continence care') or activities that disrupt the primary process (such as 'falls' and 'double checking of high-risk medication'). . This way our employees benefit maximum from it.
It is my drive to implement and 'capitalize' on these innovations not only at all our locations and sometimes at home, but also beyond! We want to share all the knowledge gained within the 'Working differently in healthcare' program with organizations that want to join in. We are already doing this because that is the only way we can achieve impact and make a difference in healthcare.
Unfortunately, all this does not happen automatically, because innovation is also simply 'hard work'. How often do meaningful pilots fail because they somehow fail to scale up? The challenge lies in broad scale-up and that is something I am happy to commit to because we cannot sell 'postcode happiness' to both our clients and our employees...
As a member of the ICT&health editorial board, I would like to contribute to the future-proofing of healthcare. To this end, I share my knowledge and skills with everyone involved and I am happy to enter into dialogue.
