The current technology environment in aged care facilities often includes separate, disconnected systems that fail to consider the long term impact of care delivery models and ever-evolving complex needs of residents.  

These fragmented systems not only lead to outdated and error-prone processes but also hinder providers from meeting key quality indicators and ultimately compromising resident care quality and safety. 

The key to tackling this challenge is in embracing a successful digital aged care strategy that is built around an enterprise care collaboration and workflow platform that consists of end-to-end solutions with simple, standardised and intelligent care workflows. This approach not only improves resident outcomes but also enhances the experiences of both residents and care staff. 

Let’s discover the best ways to achieve a digital aged care facility through an enterprise platform approach. 

Key elements to your platform solution 

When choosing an enterprise platform for your facility, consider whether it supports the following digital health functions: 

• Fall prevention: manage resident fall risk and bring attention to the intervention points when fall risks are elevated  

• Care team coordination and collaboration: solutions should enhance care communication and coordination between staff and improve interaction with residents  

• Location awareness: RTLS capabilities for wireless nurse call staff location support and resident monitoring  

• Quiet environment: audible alert systems should be assessed for the work and living environment and delivered discreetly to relevant staff members only 

• Single device strategy: a unified smart device for data entry/retrieval, communications, notifications with location services including staff safety enhancement with duress capability 

• Intelligent messaging engine: integrate multi-mode messaging, combining text, voice (one-to-one and group) and paging into one central communication flow solution for faster response times to resident queries 

• Resident engagement: support patient-centred healthcare delivery to enhance resident engagement and experience 

• Data and insights: standardise data collection across the care continuum for continuous improvement and predictive analytics 

Benefits of a unified platform 

A centralised digital smart platform offers several benefits that align to Aged Care Quality Indicator Program:  

• Resident satisfaction: a single-device strategy ensures care staff and residents are in continual contact, improving response times and resident care 

• Care staff satisfaction: care staff tend to be more satisfied when they can work in a modern, well-supported environment as more time is spent on resident care rather than low value tasks 

• Clinical outcomes: standardised best practice guidelines and enable quick uptake of new policies, procedures and standards, which can all have a positive impact on clinical outcomes 

• Continuous improvement: with access to real-time data and analytics, providers can monitor the quality of care they provide and make improvements where necessary 

Recommendations 

To establish a digitally-enabled personalised care aged care strategy it is recommended to take the following actions: 

• Establish a shared vision digital aged care partnership 

• Engage clinical and care stakeholders 

• Decide on open standards and robust interoperability for the chosen technologies 

• Simplify having all capabilities into one single enterprise platform 

• Create end-to-end resident-centric workflows using flexible systems 

• A continuous improvement mindset through agile and iterative approaches 

Unlock the potential of enterprise platforms for your aged care facility with Rauland. Contact us today to find out how we can help your facility become a digital service.