A nationwide survey of residential aged care staff has found almost one in ten works in a facility reliant on paper records for care management, while “critical digital systems” are yet to be widely implemented in a sector in “dire need of disruption”.
Conducted by the Aged Care Technology Consortium – a collaboration by Australian technology companies including Extensia working to modernise the nation’s aged care system – the survey found only 8% of residential aged care workers have access to a digital incident management system.
And within the results, 3% said their facility had implemented a visitor management platform, despite the need to monitor contacts and keep residents and staff members safe during the COVID-19 pandemic.
More than half (53%) said their facility uses a digital medication management system and 29% said a pain management platform is in place, while 8.7% reported using a paper-based care management system.