- Success story
- Test and validation
New report from NetNordic Care: how to build future response services
As municipalities take on responsibility for more people living at home with complex needs, robust response services are becoming increasingly critical. A new feasibility study conducted by Smart Care Lab in collaboration with NetNordic Care and Værnes Response shows how today’s models create unnecessary risk – and what is required to ensure safety, quality and preparedness in the years ahead.
Written by
Therese Oppegaard
The study is based on experiences from the municipalities of Namsos, Orkdal and Stjørdal, as well as Værnes Response, which currently handles alerts for 19 municipalities. Already, 60 percent of staff in Namsos report fewer unnecessary visits following the introduction of a shared response centre.
Fragmented alert chains increase risk
The report identifies three key challenges: fragmented alert workflows, insufficient prioritisation of alarms, and the lack of a cohesive professional environment for receiving and sorting alerts. In many municipalities, home care services receive both technical and health-related alerts directly, leading to misclassification and time spent on issues that could have been handled centrally by a competent first-line response. At the same time, response services are taking on an increasingly important role in emergency preparedness and in supporting people living at home as physical visits become less frequent.
Smart Care Lab led the insight work as an independent third party, ensuring neutrality in methodology, data collection and analysis.
– When we entered this project, it was essential for us to act as a neutral partner able to capture honest experiences from the municipalities. Our role has been to get close to their day-to-day reality and document both challenges and benefits as they are actually experienced – not as we assume them to be, says Karoline Blikra Mokleiv, Project Manager at Smart Care Lab.
Professional response centres deliver documented benefits
Participating municipalities point to clear gains from consolidating response services: improved professional assessments, faster triaging of alerts and more efficient use of home care resources. Both staff and managers also highlight how the response centre strengthens municipal preparedness, including during power outages or incidents affecting large numbers of service users. Looking ahead, municipalities call for a single, unified user interface, the integration of multiple types of technology and stronger data-driven decision support.
For NetNordic Care, the collaboration has provided valuable independent insight into how their response centre solution performs in real-world settings – and what municipalities will need going forward.
– We wanted this study because municipalities are in the middle of a shift where the response centre is becoming the central hub of safety technology. For us, it has been crucial to document what delivers real-world benefits – not just what looks good on paper, says Ina M. Brentebråten-Gulbrandsen, Sales Director at NetNordic Care.
– The insights from Smart Care Lab directly influence how we further develop our solutions together with response centres: making them more proactive, more data-driven and even more closely aligned with the realities municipalities face.
Providing direction for development – and confidence in implementation
The project clarifies that response services can no longer be viewed as technical alarm receivers alone, but must be developed as comprehensive professional environments that support both staff and people living at home. Strong data foundations, clear prioritisation support and a proactive approach are highlighted as critical enablers as municipalities respond to increasing pressure and more advanced technology. For both suppliers and public-sector actors, insight work of this kind is essential to reduce risk, safeguard quality and support sound decision-making before implementation and scaling.
The collaboration between NetNordic Care and Smart Care Lab illustrates how structured testing and independent insight can lead to more targeted solutions and better services for users.
– Projects like this provide a far stronger decision-making foundation before scaling. It’s about reducing risk, building shared understanding and ensuring that solutions truly support both staff and users in a demanding everyday reality, Mokleiv concludes.
