The Tell Touch Times

As demographics shift, and as medical advancements continue to increase life expectancy, societies worldwide face the challenge of caring for an older population. Australia is no exception. According to the Intergenerational Report 2023  (released August 24), government spending on aged care services is expected to rise significantly in the coming decades. However, does an increase in nominal spending necessarily mean better care for older Australians? A closer look reveals some surprising insights. The Numbers Today   In 2022, Australia's GDP was $1.675 trillion, with 1.1% allocated for aged care services. This amounts to approximately $18.425 billion. The current population utilizing these services is broken down as follows: Residential aged care: 188,000 people Home care: 216,000 people Transition care: 3,500 people Home support: 818,000 people In total, 1,225,500 individuals are using these services, translating to roughly $15,041 spent per person on aged care services in...

The Honorable Anika Wells, Minister for Aged Care, commissioned an Independent Capability Review of the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission. Authored by David Tune AO PSM, the review was tasked with recommending how the Commission’s capability could be improved to better support its regulation of the aged care sector. The report uncovers an alarming array of statistics and delivers urgent recommendations, particularly emphasizing a crucial need for the Commission to rectify significant shortcomings in its complaints process. While we concur with the report's diagnosis, we disagree with the proposed treatment. We believe the fundamental premise of the report is misguided. Our combined efforts should address the root cause of the multitude of complaints, instead of focusing primarily on enhancing the Commission's ability to manage them. The commission received over 92,000 calls, emails and web form submissions between July 2022 and the end of February 2023. These are astronom...

As we all settle into routinely conducting the new Quality Indicator (QI) Program surveys, we thought we should look at how it can be done better to save time and make life easier. We delve into a comparison of two strategies for conducting these surveys: digital versus paper forms. We'll discuss how implementing a digital solution not only aligns with the legal requirements of data handling but also could translate to significant time and cost savings for your organisation. On April 1 2023 the QI Program expanded to include 6 new indicators: Activities of daily living Incontinence care Hospitalisation Workforce Consumer experience Quality of life Data for the first 9 can be extracted from existing care management, HR or accounting systems. The last two are different beasts. They require each and every care recipient to be surveyed twice, each and every quarter. Whilst the "Quality of Care Experience" and the "Quality of Life" surveys are not particular...