How technology has helped improve the quality of aged care: opinion

With technology increasingly becoming a pertinent term in our lives, particularly in a post-COVID landscape, adopting digital approaches within the aged care sector is becoming progressively more important every passing year.

Indeed, it’s no secret that the utilisation of technology has facilitated and improved digital access for many of Australia’s aged care homes as we know them.

Still, providers relying heavily on paper or outdated systems to evidence care have been hit especially hard over the past two years, as a result of mounting time pressures around administrating and evidencing medication – which is only continuing to accelerate.

Moreover, the quality of information that is transmitted over to aged care home managers has increased dramatically, too.

Since the introduction of profile-building software and digital clinical documentation, there has been more of a meticulous focus on providing individual-focused care, which enables greater transparency when looking at digital care records, while simultaneously improving communication amongst carers.

Mobile clinical care systems, too, have helped reduce the time it would take to physically transcribe care notes as technology has enabled staff to record information at the point of care, while also mitigating the risk of errors through innovative icon-driven tools.

For too long, recent technological advancements have not been utilised to their full potential.

Using data for statistical analysis and benchmarking, for example, provides aged care providers with valuable insights into their operations that are not immediately available, enabling them to tailor their services to meet the needs of each person in their care – improving decision-making for nurses and creating that transparency that previously didn’t exist before technology.

Aged care providers should embrace digital solutions for evidencing care interactions, electronic care planning, and reporting.

Further to improving carer efficiency, technology that enables care interactions to be evidenced at the point of delivery reduces errors and compliments Australia’s new evidence-based funding, by showcasing what care has been delivered to which resident and when.

Last year, the Australian Government approved the continued development of the Australian National Aged Care Classification (AN-ACC) as a possible replacement for the Aged Care Funding Instrument (ACFI). AN-ACC reduces the administrative burden of completing assessments and provide consistency on the types of assessments used.

This has shifted documentation from being primarily funding driven, as with ACFI, towards
documentation with a re-enablement approach.

Our globally recognised clinical care systems are the perfect solution to support this. Fully mobile, carers can evidence care at the point of delivery – and the icon-driven interface makes the entire process quick and easy – encouraging them to evidence more care notes.

Additionally, our software has the capability to calculate the amount of care delivered to a resident and build a report around this information. This ensures any time spent evidencing care for specific individuals when producing monthly reports for relatives is as efficient and accurate as possible.

This is one of many reasons why more and more aged care providers realise that digital
systems offer a greater focus on each resident – their goals, hobbies and wishes – encouraging a more person-centred approach to care delivery.

Furthermore, the adoption of technology has made the workplace a much healthier and happy place to work, whereby those on the frontline now have the tools to provide person-centred care and create meaningful experiences for those in their care day after day.

Across Australia, the implementation of technology saves carers, on average, a total of 180,000 minutes every day. This valuable time can be reinvested into solely spending proactive time with and taking care of residents.

After all, it was only last month that the Australian Government’s commitment to investing $60 million to extend support for COVID-19 response measures in aged care homes was finally put to an end, on 30 June, 2022.

During that period, it ensured that aged care homes were able to eliminate the unnecessary burden of paper-based dependency via more effective and multifunctional technology – a feat that just simply wasn’t possible not too long ago.

Ultimately, given what we’ve experienced first-hand over the past few years, it is clear to see that the agile capabilities of technology are empowering all areas of aged care facilities, and leaving traditional administrative systems to struggle for relevance in a world that has become dramatically more integrated and tech-savvy.

Overall, digital care technology will continue to evolve and incorporate more interoperability, while the enhanced connectivity and collaboration that has arisen from such technology will only benefit the overall quality of care in aged care homes.

Tammy Sherwood is the CEO of Person Centred Software Australia & New Zealand.

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