1) TECHNOLOGY

The Royal Commission recommended that Aged Care Facilities implement technology-based systems in order to minimise errors, increase ease of access and to ultimately save time.

The Royal Commission released a statement in their ‘Aged Care Quality and Safety’ report that the investment and implementation of technology based systems help with: 

• Digital record keeping;
• Greater communication across other health care provider;
• Covering all the bases. 

The 3 key areas in Aged Care safety needing technology investment are: 

1. To enable better services for older people such as care management, case monitoring and reporting that is accessible, accurate and up-to-date.
2. To provide assistive support for older people to help manage their safety easily and contribute to their quality of life.
3. For better communication and seamless reporting including the sharing of data and information.

2) INCIDENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

The Aged Care Quality Standards Commission requires all aged care providers to manage and prevent incidents through the use of an Incident Management System (IMS).

Standard 8, Requirement (3)(d) of the Aged Care Quality Standards (Quality Standards) requires the use of an effective IMS with the following four key components: 

1. Policies and procedures on how to identify, respond to, resolve and learn from incidents which must be documented and accessible.
2. A recording tool to capture incident details and information.
3. A staff training program with regular reinforcement of system use and responsibilities of staff.
4. Governance and accountability arrangements to ensure effectiveness and continuous quality improvement. 

3) QUALIFICATIONS AND INDUCTIONS

Aged Care providers have the duty of care to ensure that any employees undertaking work have the appropriate experience, qualifications, skills and training.

This process includes the planning, development and review of training with ongoing workforce development and continuous improvement to create longer-term career paths, and address relevant current and future competencies and skills. 

The Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission has set out requirements for governing bodies to:

• Ensure leaders and managers have professional qualifications.
• Adopt and implement staff management and support for training, professional development and continuous learning, staff feedback and engagement, and team building.