Period: 01.04.2024 - 31.12.2026

Like many regions in Germany, the district of Oberallgäu is facing major challenges due to demographic change. The ageing population is accompanied by an increasing number of people in need of care. By 2042, the number of over 80-year-olds will increase from the current 12.220 in 2022 to around 15.960 (Hildesheimer Modell, 2022). In 2022, around 5.600 people in the district will be in need of care; by 2040, the number of people in need of care is expected to rise to 7.482 (Bayerisches Landesamt für Pflege, n.d.).

There are currently 17 ambulatory care services operating in the district of Oberallgäu to provide care in people's own homes. However, these services face considerable challenges such as long distances to clients (especially in rural areas) and staff shortages. People in need of care and their relatives often have to contact numerous care services and frequently receive cancellations due to overload. This leads to a considerable amount of time being spent by both those seeking help and the ambulatory care services.

In order to meet these challenges, the ambulatory  care services in the southern part of the Oberallgäu have joined forces with the District Office Oberallgäu to develop a digital coordination platform. This platform is intended to facilitate the placement and allocation of people in need of care to the available care services and serve as a communication medium. This will simplify and speed up the coordination processes between the care services and those seeking help, allowing the care services to concentrate more on their care activities. This innovative platform should therefore help to sustainably secure and improve the quality of life of people in need of care in the district of Oberallgäu by increasing the efficiency of care services and improving the quality of care.

Moreover, the platform is intended to collect data on ambulantory care, which  are supposed be used by the district to jointly identify gaps in care and to develop targeted support services. However, sustainable use of the platform requires changes in working methods and cooperation processes between the care services involved.

Continuous scientific monitoring by the Bavarian Centre for Digital Health and Social Care ensures that the processes and results are being evaluated and the conditions for the successful use of such a cross-institutional platform are identified. The BZPD contributes an interdisciplinary perspective, supports the co-creative development of the platform technology and promotes sustainability and transfer to the wider area - initially to the northern part of the Oberallgäu and lateron even to other regions in Bavaria.