Vasterbotten Withouth Borders: an interaction design model of digital close care and sustainable recruitment.

Purpose and goal:

Västerbotten without borders (VuG) aims to improve the accessibility to healthcare services through the development of an innovative model of digital care. VuG has established a model for hybrid work through national and international cooperation and global attraction, with a special focus on recruitment and retention of personnel.

Expected results and effects:

The VuG project has developed a model for sustainable digital care. In short, this model is about providing healthcare support to the clinical sites in Region Västerbotten regardless of where these professionals are living. To date, this model runs in different clinical settings of the region by a multidisciplinary staff working from Spain, Portugal, Finland and Sweden. 11 healthcare professionals have been recruited and are currently working for two health centres, eight nursing homes, a mobile team, Hälsodigitalen, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and the Skin Clinic

Approach and implementation:

The work consisted of the revision of regulations, testing of digital technology, and development of processes. A prototype of two main processes was created, one for the employment of remote employees and the other for the introduction of a new working model in real clinical settings.

A success factor has been the multidisciplinary team, with a strong spirit of innovation and trust feeling into the team that has promoted the creative process. Design thinking gold standard principles have been used as a method and the users´ needs have always guided the project development.