More time for care

In February 2020, the nationally acclaimed pilot project "voize" - the digital speech assistant for care - was launched. A good two years later, the project has become an important tool in the elderly care facilities at the Caritasverband für Stuttgart e.V..

"For our facilities, the introduction of the "voize" care app is a major digitization step," says Sebastian Menne, deputy division manager for elderly care. "It also puts us a nose ahead of many others," says Menne. But they are happy to share their experience: "We now have inquiries from all over Germany from facilities that are interested in the care app."

voize supports in everyday care

Fabio Schmidberger founded the startup voize together with his brother Marcel and their colleague Erik Ziegler in 2020. "voize" is also the name of their app, for voice-controlled care documentation on a smartphone. The young entrepreneurs set themselves the task of making documentation in care faster and easier, leaving more time for people. Caregivers can use the app to speak in documentation on their smartphones, and they can do so directly while providing care. The documentation entries created are then automatically transferred to the existing documentation software. 

The young entrepreneurs found a cooperation partner in the elderly care department at Caritasverband für Stuttgart e.V., with whom they have spent the last two years developing the app and gaining important insights into everyday care. "We were convinced by the fact that they didn't want to sell us a ready-made product, but instead thought their way into our work from the ground up," says Sebastian Menne, deputy head of the elderly care department. 

Data is entered directly into the cell phone

Rene Stolz-Hoppmann is the facility manager at Haus St. Barbara. Since April 2022, the care app "voize" has been the daily companion of the employees. For them, it is a great relief: "Our colleagues are thrilled. They can enter the residents' data directly into their cell phones and thus have much more time for actual care," says facility manager René Stolz-Hoppmann. Documentation has also improved significantly as a result: "The app even corrects errors, which is also a great relief for our employees." 

Voice app understands the care context

"voize" artificial intelligence understands the care context and automatically generates structured documentation entries. Using interfaces, the data is transferred to existing documentation systems. Everything runs locally on the smartphone. Thus, no data is sent to the cloud. This means that high data protection standards are achieved, and even care facilities without widespread WLAN benefit from the application," says Marcel Schmidberger, explaining the digital care documentation system.

More time for the residents

Sefaat Kayan works at Haus St. Ulrich, another Caritas facility in Stuttgart, and has been involved in the development of the app from the very beginning. "With the app, we have a lot more time for the residents," she says happily. "For many, speaking is also easier than writing," says Sefaat Kayan. The app automatically corrects spelling and grammar. Thanks to this development, having more time with people "is also a great boost to our profession," says the young geriatric nurse.

The residents are also enthusiastic: "Many are very curious and say, 'Let me take a look at what you're doing,' or they want to know what their last values were, and the nurse can show them on their cell phone," reports René Stolz-Hoppmann.

By the beginning of 2023, the care app "voize" will have been introduced in all five elderly care facilities within the Caritas Association in Stuttgart. "For us, this is an important step," says Sebastian Menne. "We now have much more time for the people in our facilities, care documentation is faster, easier and gains in quality, and the job description of geriatric nurse becomes more attractive."

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