The USU-project which stands for development, cooperation and education is a cooperating project including the local medical care centre and the old age care centre in the city of Ovanåker. Great demand for medical and personal care as well as demands to effect economies require new methods of working with elderly and sick people in the future. The thrust is to make it possible for all fellow workers in the field of action to participate in a common process in purpose to analyse the needs of care as well as the needs of development in the future. The project mainly focus on quality, efficiency and pleasure in one's work. An external evaluator was connected to the project in purpose to describe how the staff as well as those in need of professional care experience the field of action today and to which extent they will experience any development connected to the project in the future. This report, which is the first of two, describes what have been done in the project workduring 1999 and how the staff and the patients experience the old age care today. The data have been collected during the period of January to June 1999. Observations and interviews have been done with bosses, other fellow-workers and people in need of professional care. The results show that the staff as well as the patients has a very positive opinion about both the medical and the social care in the city of Ovanåker. The results also shows that there are fields of development which are important to pay attention to in a vision of the future. The fields are for example development of the leadership in the field of social care, development of the competence and responsibility in the teams of social care and further development of the cooperation between the social and the medical care. For instance through meetings for individual care planning, common group meetings and further training.