Professional stakeholders' views of the use of digital technologies in Spanish long-term care

Abstract

Demographic change in Europe has resulted in an aging population, which presents new challenges for implementing and managing long-term care (LTC) systems. One solution aims to increase the efficiency of LTC by using digital technologies. This article focuses on professionals’ opinions of the use of digital technologies in the administration of Spain’s long-term care law (Law 39/2006, December 14, LAPAD). This qualitative research is part of SoCaTel, an H2020 project on the co-creation of LTC services in Europe. Ten focus groups were held with health professionals, care-taking relatives, and care workers, and six semistructured in-depth interviews were conducted with care recipients in Catalonia, Spain. This article presents the data collected from professionals. Professionals reacted positively to the use of digital technologies, in contrast to some previous studies that highlight professionals’ strong resistance to digitalization. Professionals saw digitalization as a way to speed up and simplify administrative processes. However, they also identified serious obstacles to efficient digitalization.