AI-assisted documentation brings structure to everyday social care work

Time consuming manual documentation causes significant cognitive strain for social and healthcare professionals. To address this, Finland’s South Ostrobothnia wellbeing services county launched a pilot of Lifecare Smart Notes in late 2024. A third phase in September 2025 integrated AI-assisted documentation to Lifecare EHR Healthcare – delivering highly promising results. 
 

Tieto Caretech’s Lifecare Smart Notes is an AI-based solution that speeds up documentation and reduces cognitive load. The solution helps users focus on patient interaction, as less time is spent on writing up notes. It works seamlessly with Lifecare EHR (Electronic Health Care) or as a standalone tool.
 

The wellbeing services county of South Ostrobothnia operates in 18 Finnish municipalities and serves 190,000 citizens. Over 10,000 professionals in 400 different job roles work in the county’s eight social and health centres.

In autumn 2024, Tieto Caretech began its collaboration with the county of South Ostrobothnia to pilot Lifecare Smart Notes. Following successful early results, the test group has been expanded to include healthcare professionals. 

“The pilot was designed from the user’s perspective and has been positively received. We interviewed employees who regularly produce documentation to understand their needs in terms of speech recognition. The expectation was that the solution would become a useful and efficient aid in everyday work,” says Project Manager Elina Kuohuva-Ikonen, who represents the Support Services of the wellbeing services county of South Ostrobothnia.

“Our collaboration with Tieto Caretech has been good and flexible from the start, with our team actively involved in the development. A pleasant surprise has been that the supplier has continuously brought forward new functionality ideas. I am really looking forward to the results of the third pilot, which started in September. We are now examining the impact on professionals’ daily work and improving reporting. A user survey will be conducted at the end. AI is a positive tool in our work, making time management much easier. I recommend its use in Finland’s other wellbeing services counties too,” continues Kuohuva-Ikonen. 

Projektipäällikkö Elina Kuohuva-Ikonen, Etelä-Pohjanmaan hyvinvointialueen Tukipalvelut

Essi Puska, an acting social worker at the county South Ostrobothnia, joined the pilot at the beginning of the year. She works with some 50 families in the Seinäjoki and Isokyrö areas. 

“I was immediately excited about this opportunity, as the solution promised to ease and streamline our work. Before Lifecare Smart Notes, my job involved a lot of manual documentation. In social work, everything must be recorded. I used to transfer notes from Word or a notebook into the Lifecare EHR (Electronic Health Record) Social care for social services. With multiple meetings or calls in a day, it was challenging to recall everything discussed. When I decided to start using the solution, documentation became more up-to-date and much more efficient. I now have more time for important client work. This solution truly helps in a concrete way and does not add extra work,” says Essi Puska. 

Acting social worker Essi Puska, Wellbeing services county of Southern Ostrobothnia

Puska also shares insights from her master’s degree thesis, which examines how social work professionals perceived AI-assisted documentation and its suitability for social care work. The survey for the master’s thesis was answered by 118 professionals, 84 of whom worked in the social sector. 

“More than 65% of respondents said the solution had reduced documentation delays. It changed the nature of the work by reducing the time spent on documentation and increasing efficiency. This suggests that many professionals consider the solution useful in streamlining work processes. It is thus seen as an important tool for enhancing documentation in the social care sector,” Puska says. 

Jussi Rinne works as an instructor for services that help working-aged people and people with disabilities to live at home. 

“I joined the pilot last October. As I am also trained as an IT specialist, I was very interested in participating. I started using the solution right away and now use it every day in my work. I dictate quite a lot while on the road between client visits and sometimes even at the client’s home. I’ve also tried testing the solution in various ways. For example, I played loud music in the car and even drove through a car wash once – Lifecare Smart Notes recognized my dictation despite the noise,” says Rinne with a smile. 

“Lifecare Smart Notes is a truly valuable solution and it’s worth investing time in using it. The conversation recording and summary features are especially useful. I see that the importance of AI in the social care sector will clearly grow in the future, as the technology can help save working hours. I recommend the use of this solution to colleagues in the other wellbeing services counties as well.” 

Instructor Jussi Rinne, Wellbeing services county of Southern Ostrobothnia

Kalle Vuorinen works as Product Manager at Tieto Caretech. He explains that Lifecare Smart Notes is revolutionizing documentation in social and healthcare services. 

“AI already generates documentation drafts, and soon it may suggest directions and make smarter use of the client’s or patient’s previous records. AI creates a ready-made base for documentation, to which the professional adds their own assessment. This marks a new era in streamlining workflows,” says Vuorinen. 

“I see AI in the social and healthcare sector as an assistant. It helps professionals to find essential information, create documentation and automate administrative tasks – freeing up time for client and patient work. Close collaboration with wellbeing services counties to identify the right use cases for AI is key to ensure we get the most benefit from the technology.” 

• Lifecare Smart Notes – AI Speech-to-Text for Faster Documentation 
• According to an assessment (in Finnish) by the wellbeing services county of Southwest Finland, the speech-to-text feature can reduce the time spent on nursing documentation by up to 40%. 
• *)Master’s thesis by Essi Puska and Marika Lintala (in Finnish), Social Work, Department of Social Sciences and Philosophy. University of Jyväskylä and Kokkola University Consortium Chydenius, autumn 2025.