From 1 October 2023, the Federal Government will require aged care residents to receive an average of 200 minutes of care each day, including an average of 40 minutes of care delivered by a Registered Nurse.
On top of this, aged care facilities will be required to have a Registered Nurse onsite for a minimum of 16 hours per day, as suggested in the Final Report from the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety.
With only one year left to prepare for the upcoming care minimums, many providers are looking at how their care and nursing staff can save time on documentation and administration whilst maximising their one-on-one time with residents.
Time-saving technology is at the forefront of Telstra Health’s aged care vision. Our residential aged care solution assists in admission, clinical workflow funding and medication management, family messaging, and comprehensive reporting.
By offering an integrated solution, information entered flows to other areas of the software to cut down on duplicate data entry, saving valuable staff time and helping ensure information is consistent and up to date.
Telstra Health recently launched CareKeeper, an award-winning app that allows care staff to quickly view, action and record care via a mobile device by the resident’s side.
CareKeeper was designed with illustrative icons to help staff quickly identify care tasks, such as a knife and fork icon to indicate a Food Intake observation. The app enables staff to tick the most urgent tasks off as soon as they have been completed, helping to minimise the time spent documenting at the Nurses’ station at the end of each shift.
Care staff surveyed reported that on average, CareKeeper saved them approximately 25 minutes per shift – a dramatic saving for any time-poor worker.
Our Clinical Manager software helps providers to streamline key operational processes, such as clinical administration and care management, geared at giving staff more time to focus on personalised resident care. Clinical Manager also offers Australian National Aged Care Classifications (AN-ACC) funding management tools, which can help to reduce the need for duplicate data entry in a separate funding system.
To support an efficient medication management process, Telstra Health’s Medication Management solution combines MedMobile – a medication administration app that can save up to 30 minutes per medication round compared to providers using paper documentation – and MedPoint, the new Electronic National Residential Medication Chart (eNRMC) compliant module, which removes the manual process of sending charts to the pharmacy.
Telstra Health’s Message Manager software combines SMS and email functionality which can reduce the time staff spend trying to get in touch with resident’s families through phone calls and voicemails, while our Resident Manager software enables staff to send resident admissions, departures, leave and funding submissions directly to Services Australia, without having to log into the Government portal.
With around 86 per cent of people in direct care roles in residential aged care identifying as female, supporting women to join, remain and excel in the sector is vital.
We’re helping support women working in aged care with our Brilliant Connected Women in Digital Health network. Through regular events, the network brings together women and men to share ideas, create new connections, inspire opportunities and celebrate the successes and outstanding activity of women in the sector.
For more information about Telstra Health’s aged care solutions and how we are supporting the residential aged care sector, head to the Telstra Health website.
