Communication and culture

Early involvement of key stakeholders: It is important to identify key stakeholders for your pilot context as an important factor for the success of a product implementation is the early involvement of all stakeholders. These can be internal and external stakeholders. A list of project members and stakeholders will help you to further coordinate communication and involvement in your pilot.

Management Power: Appoint a project manager, digital transformation responsible for the implementation, and as a central contact person for the LTC facility. Especially for complex product launches, the team typically needs an experienced guide who is flexible, resident, competent, and able to support new users confidently until they are proficient in independent product use and the changed processes (Würdig et al., 2022). If applicable, appoint a wider digital transformation management team (e.g., establish a dedicated help desk to assist users with technical issues.). Clarify in detail the roles and responsibilities in advance and communicate them transparently.

Effective communication and a supportive organizational culture are critical for overcoming resistance, fostering collaboration, and ensuring the successful adoption of new technology in an LTC setting. It creates an environment where employees feel empowered, valued, and well-prepared to leverage technology to enhance their work and improve resident care. External communication is also essential for introducing the new technology to external stakeholders such as residents, their families, and regulatory bodies. Transparent and informative communication with these external parties helps manage expectations, build trust, and demonstrate the nursing home's commitment to providing enhanced care through technological advancements.

Communicating acceptance from stakeholders works best when it focuses on the people who are affected by the change (Maguire et al., 2018), but also recognizes differences between professional cultures, facilitating dialogue and translation between professional cultures (network, task-teams) (Dugstad et al., 2019). Team communication and collaboration is also important in bottom-up engagement in digital strategy (Trenerry et al., 2021). A good strategy should conceptualize and communicate technologies as tools that complement rather than replace staff and introduce a variety of incentives for adopting the new model, which should reflect the diversity of interests in the workforce (Chan et al., 2022).