The Department of Health and Aged Care has introduced voluntary Monthly Care Statements from 1 October, with plans to make them mandatory in the future. But will aged care providers be willing to take on the extra administrative burden - and cost?
Monthly Care Statements will contain information about wellbeing activities, nutrition and weight, medication, diagnoses, wound management, mobility, and falls.
Some aspects of creating the Monthly Care Statements, such as on-site clinical reviews, verbal delivery of the statements, and follow up conversations and activities, can be counted towards mandatory care minute targets, which are increasing next month.
Alasdair Croydon, CEO of Holy Family Services, which operates a stand-alone aged care facility in Marayong, 38km west of the Sydney CBD, told The Weekly SOURCE the time cost of producing Monthly Care Statements "would be prohibitive" and the administrative burden "very significant".
Submitting the information, checking it, providing the report to residents and families, and then following up, which would have to be done using the "scarce" resource of a Registered Nurse, would make Monthly Care Statements significant time and administrative burdens.
"If it took an hour to create the Statement, an hour to check it, then 30 minutes to discuss it with the recipient then a 100-bed facility would spend at least an extra $17,000 or so per month just for this process," Alasdair said.
"That is $204,000 annualised, which does not strike me as a good use of either financial or people resources."
He said his facility, like most aged care homes, has an electronic clinical care management system, but theirs does not have a function that can produce the Care Statement.
"It does have a report, however for an average resident it runs to more than 50 pages. It also contains names of staff etc that would all need to be redacted manually", adding to the time burden.
Usefulness questioned
Alasdair said Holy Family Services already conducts regular care conferences with residents and their families and provides them with copies of their care plans. However, the "vast majority" of residents and families "aren’t interested" in attending and they don't read the information provided currently.
Despite his concerns, Alasdair said if Monthly Care Statements are made mandatory, "we will comply".
"However, I do not see any real demonstrable benefit to the care recipients or their relatives for doing so. It will not improve, or change, clinical care, accommodation or support services that are provided."
'Care Statements' will be required under the strengthened Aged Care Quality Standards and are being introduced to address concerns raised during the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety about residents and their families not being aware of the care that was being delivered.
The Department of Health and Aged Care is developing a digital tool to create Monthly Care Statements.