ABSTRACT
Home healthcare services are a growing segment of the Norwegian healthcare system. Specialist healthcare services are shifting from the hospital setting to the community (Sibbald et al., 2007; Helse- og Omsorgsdepartementet, 2009), and many healthcare services are increasingly expected to be delivered in people's own homes (Helse- og Omsorgsdepartementet, 2015). A rapidly growing ageing population, many with complex healthcare needs, will necessitate changes to traditional forms of home healthcare provision, such as increased integration of telecare technologies into service delivery (Koch and Hägglund, 2009; Milligan et al., 2011). Telecare solutions can enable healthcare professionals to remotely care for patients living at home and are therefore seen as a promising solution to some of the challenges forecast for future home healthcare services (Solli et al., 2012). Implementation of new information and communication technologies (ICT) in healthcare settings is however complex and is influenced by several factors (Hoonakker, 2012). The attitudes and experiences of healthcare professionals have been flagged as a potential major barrier to telecare implementation (Mair et al., 2007; Brewster et al., 2014; Taylor et al., 2015). A crucial determinant in whether or not healthcare professionals adopt telecare is evidence of its quality and relative advantages to users (Sheikh et al., 2011; Zanaboni and Wootton, 2012). Investigation of healthcare professionals' views on quality and safety may be important, therefore, to help determine the success or otherwise of innovation initiatives like telecare (Brasaite et al., 2014).
