Many home care providers lack the IT systems to extract data to automatically report Quality Indicators (QIs), Brendan Roche, Partner with healthcare management consultants HealthConsult, has told The SOURCE.
Partner, HealthConsult
HealthConsult is running a $1.2 million pilot of Home Care QIs, including the indicators of missed visits and care plan reviews, but is finding operators are often running on paper-based systems, or uploading PDFs, both of which require manual uploading of data.
When software vendors are asked to support home care operators run reports to extract the data, the vendors are responding they are busy implementing changes related to Support at Home.
"It's a shame because they are two really valuable indicators that are both good for providers. Providers want to know the data. Consumers want to know the data. And it shouldn't be hard to produce, but it is," Brendan said.
Another surprising finding has been a lack of data on care planning.
"We have been surprised that they either don't get done, or don't get reviewed. That surprises us because that's kind of fundamental to what aged care is funded to do," Brendan said.
HealthConsult has recruited 77 home care providers to take part in the pilot and will present its findings in February 2025.
Home care QIs are due to come in after 1 July 2026.
