inTechnology Distribution launches Automated Care Minute Reporting for aged care providers

inTechnology Distribution has launched an Automated Care Minute Reporting System aimed at residential aged care providers across Australia meet their compliance needs.

The system aims to assist providers in transitioning to the new Australian National Aged Care Classification (AN-ACC) care funding model, which will replace the current Aged Care Funding Instrument.

Based on Real Time Location System (RTLS) technology, the system records interactions between caregivers, nurses and residents with detailed reporting and alerts to ensure residents get the right amount of care minutes.

inTechnology chief executive Mark Winter said, “The challenge for aged care providers is how to capture and report the time spent with each resident without this becoming an administrative burden on their staff, taking them away from focusing on providing the best possible care for their residents.”

AN-ACC's minimum requirements for care provided by nurses and caregivers will be set at a sector wide average of 200 minutes per day starting 1 October 2023. This includes a minimum of 40 minutes of registered nurse time, which is consistent with the Royal Commission recommendations.

“These aggregated minutes can then be viewed within the system per shift, day, week, month etc or integrated into an existing Care Delivery Management System, Business Intelligence (BI) or AN-ACC reporting platform,” Winter said.

Funding will be provided from 1 October 2022 once AN-ACC commences to accommodate potential delays related to staff shortages. The policy aims to increase the care minute requirements to 215 minutes per day, with minimum 44 minutes of registered nurse time by October 2024.

The automated reporting will reduce the hours of labour that aged care staff spend reporting, and reduces related expense, according to the Australian Government Department of Health. Residential aged care services will be ranked by a star rating system based on 5 quality indicators, service compliance ratings, consumer experience and staff minutes of care. This information will directly inform the performance of facilities against their care minutes targets, allowing consumers to easily compare the care being provided at different residential aged care facilities.

“Having this visibility will enable residential aged care providers to increase staffing levels to meet the new care minute requirement (targets) where they will receive equitable care funding that better matches resident funding with the costs of delivering care enabling a more efficient, transparent and sustainable system,” Winter said.

inTechnology has provided RTLS technology within the aged care industry for the last twelve years for resident tracking, staff tracking and contact tracing. The company said the launch of this Automated Care Minute Reporting System would result in a significant increase in RTLS technology adoption among aged care providers.