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The interaction between long-term care clients and professionals
contributes to the degree to which the care package can be
customized and fine-tuned to an individual client’s needs and
wants.
To make modularity work in a long-term care setting, a dynamic view
on modularity seems a prerequisite to be able to take into account actual
client needs and configure appropriate care and service packages.
Embedding modularity in an organization’s products, processes and
organizational arrangement of people seems necessary to work towards
the provision of demand-based care offerings.
Modularity aspects and practices contribute to the provision of demand-
based care packages in all phases of the long-term care process.
To advance the sector of long-term care for the elderly towards the aim of demand-
based care provision, we recommend providers of long-term care to use this study to
reconsider the way in which they specify, configure, deliver, and reconfigure their care
and service packages. When aiming to use modularity in their daily operations, it is
important that providers consider the arrangement of their total care delivery system
(i.e. the arrangement of care products as well as processes and people) and take into
account the flow of the client and his demands through the care process as a whole.
In addition, mechanisms are required that enable packages to evolve over time. A
range of supply organized in modules and the two-phase specification process, where
customization activities primarily take place in the last phase, enable the evolvement
of care packages in the specification process. During on-going care delivery, different
types of interfaces manage and support the reconfiguration of packages since they
allow for variation in the package contents and re-establish coherence between package
components.
With respect to the role of elderly clients in modular care provision, we recommend
providers to analyze the characteristics of client demands. This could help organizations
to identify client segments and pre-arrange care packages that would allow them
to profit from analogies among different clients or client groups. To encompass all
aspects of individual client demand, interactions with the client should take place in
the care process as a whole, however, these interactions can be managed by means of
postponement practices.
Concerning the role of care professionals in modular care provision, we would advise
providers to be conscious of the various ways in which professionals can influence
care package construction and delivery and provide their service workers with the
skills and means to achieve proper customization of care and service supply as well
Modular
Care Provision