The Nursing Home Of The Future?

The talking teddy-bear robot that wouldn't stop flapping its arms is still experimental. But most of the technology offerings at a new prototype nursing home are serious business.

As Japan's population grays, computers are expected to play an increasing role in elderly care.

That's why Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., best known for its Panasonic and National brands of consumer electronics, is betting on managed health care and technologies.

Matsushita opened the 103-room Sincere Kourien home in December and filled it with devices carrying the company's brand names.

"Some people question how an electronics maker can really go into nursing care," said Kuni-ichi Ozawa, the home's president. "But we say it's precisely because we're an electronics company that we can do a good job."

Hit hard by the global slump and price competition from rivals, Matsushita is set to post its biggest lost since its founding in 1918 - a projected $3.3 billion for the fiscal year ending in March.

It is closing cell-phone and refrigerator-parts plants and cutting its work force through early retirement.

Yet Matsushita is growing in one sector. It plans to open more nursing homes.

The Sincere Kourien home in Neyagawa, which is near Osaka, costs $135,000 for admission plus a monthly fee of $1,900 -- reasonable by Japanese standards.

Unlike other homes, Matsushita's does not receive any government aid; patients use a government-funded health plan to pay for parts of their care.

It already has 29 residents and is looking at another 80 applications. The patient-staff ratio is 2-to1, better than the government's recommendation of 3-to-1.

For Matsushita, the home is a proving ground for the gadgets that can help those increasingly unable to help themselves.

The bathrooms, for example, have sensors on ceilings that notify the staff if a resident collapses.

Each resident also carries an electronic device with a button that can be pushed to alert staffers on their cell phones at nursing stations.

Video cameras throughout the four-story building monitor activity, and the doors that divide building sectors have electronic locks that require passwords.

Every room has a computer network port and resident data is, as you might expect, stored electronically.

"It's one area where Matsushita's strength in home appliances gives it a good chance of showing it's a winner," said Masayuki Yonezawa, an analyst with BNP Paribas in Tokyo.

By about 2007, one-fifth of all Japanese are expected to be age 65 or older as the birthrate continues to shrink.

Meanwhile, traditional ties that once kept all generations together in a family have unraveled with modernization.

"I lived alone for 10 years after my wife died. This is much better," said Masaichi Kato, 91, a former public servant who lives at Sincere Kourien.

Some smart devices at the home reflect some of the challenges faced by elderly care workers.

For patients with dementia, there are beds with weight monitors linked to a computer network that automatically locks a room's door if the bed is suddenly vacated. The monitors also come in handy when patients accidentally fall off their beds, allowing staffers to rush to their aid.

Sincere Kourien isn't all about technology. It has a rooftop garden, cascading water fountain, beauty-care services and music-therapy classes.

But its main distinction is in electronics.

Eventually, company officials say, residents will be able to play with robot pets, which will record phone messages from the residents' family, ask simple riddles and use voice-recognition capabilities to respond with programmed dialogue.

Another version of the robots, shaped like wombats, is being used in a town-funded project in nearby Ikeda to provide companionship for the elderly living alone.

One machine still under development will help residents check their blood pressure and other vital signs and send them electronically to a doctor.

"The human touch is basic to elderly care such as talking with the patient," said Kimika Usui, professor of gerontologic nursing at Osaka Prefecture College of Nursing.

"But it's also important to use the help of machines in a positive way. That can protect the health of the workers, including their state of mind. And that leads to better care."