It’s hard to ignore: Technology in the health care setting is everywhere.  Whether it’s a new iPhone app or a new electronic gadget or software program, everyday there is something new on the market designed to personalize the medical home and enhance the patient’s quality of care.

 Thanks to recent technological advances in home care monitoring, children can have peace of mind knowing that their parents are safe and healthy from a distance.   Likewise, parents can have peace of mind knowing that they will be able to stay in their own home as they age.  They can take their blood pressure, get weighed, check their blood glucose level and be reminded to take their medications with electronic medication dispensers all within the comfort of their own home.  As technology revolutionizes home care, the burden of the sandwich generation becomes a little lighter.

 Recently, certain telemonitoring systems allow children to monitor aging relatives from their home using motion detectors to track their parent’s every move and respond appropriately.  If a parent is at high risk of falling, a system such as this may be the very thing that could safe their life.  Yet, amidst the exciting home care breakthrough of having access to a parent 24/7, there is something intrusive about knowing when your parent uses the washroom or opens the refrigerator door. Systems like these have certainly taken home care to a whole new level, but has this new level gone too far?  When parents ask to stay at home, electronic babysitting is not likely what they have in mind. 

 There are masses of new monitoring systems, all essentially with the same goal in mind: to help maintain a person’s independence at home while being able to provide personalized care at the same time.  However, the problem with advancing technologies is that they lack the quality of care behind the service.  It is positively welcoming when children take the initiative to encourage their parents to remain in their home, but there is nothing comparable to the one-on-one interaction and provision of services between caregivers and their clients.  What these home monitoring systems lack is obvious: compassion, empathy, personality, availability – humanity. 

 This is where home care companies, like Equinoxe, come in. Through it’s stringent hiring processes and ISO mandated policies, Equinoxe provides premium at-home care with a specialized staff of Care Managers that oversee, match and train caregivers to deliver a higher standard of care. Equinoxe’s telehealth incorporates electronic medication dispensers and monitoring systems in conjunction with it’s other services.  The monitoring systems are connected to a computer network that generates and relays information via Equinoxe’s medical call center.  Family members are notified right away regarding the status of their loved one.  By integrating telemonitoring systems with highly trained staff, patients can experience both the benefits of human relations and technological aids. 

 There’s no question, technology has a deserving and much needed place in home care.  It’s a matter of deciding at what point technology has compromised the care associated with caregiving.