The Aged Care Technology Consortium in Australia has noted the dearth of critical digital system implementations across the residential aged care sector in a recent nationwide survey.

FINDINGS

The survey, which was conducted in June, gathered responses mostly from facility managers (37%), followed by nursing directors (20%), CEOs (13%) and care managers (7%).

It was found that most respondents (53%) are working in a facility with a digital medication management system while 29% said they have implemented a pain management platform. 

About 9% of respondents reported being reliant on paper records for care management; 8% said their workers have access to a digital incident management system; and only 3% said their facility has implemented a visitor management platform. 

The survey also revealed staff's major workplace challenges, including documentation completeness (29%), incident management (19%), shift handover and ease of administration (18%), monitoring care quality and managing escalations (16%), and compliance and auditing activities (15%).

WHY IT MATTERS

"These results are concerning," remarked Arthur Shih, CEO of Humanetix, one of the founding members of the ACTC. He said there is "​​no need for paper care records to be used in aged care when they come with unnecessary risks for residents [and especially when] digital systems are available that can provide safer, more efficient and coordinated care".

"Aged care providers can find it confusing to choose digital systems, and often their systems don't connect or share information," explained Brian Sullivan, founder and CEO of MEDRefer, also a founding member of the consortium.

THE LARGER CONTEXT

The Aged Care Royal Commission report last year found the sector to be "deeply analogue" and "well behind" other sectors in the use and application of technology. 

The lack of information sharing within and among the sector's providers has led six technology firms to band together and form the ACTC, which was launched last month. They are providers of technologies for communications, workflow and administration, telehealth and remote monitoring, referrals, medication management, and health information sharing.

"A major goal of the consortium is to demonstrate how innovative digital health solutions can transform health outcomes for older Australians in residential aged care and home-care settings. It's time to shift aged care into the 21st century," said Mike Harman, co-founder of Visionflex, a consortium founding member.