Aged Care Quality providers receive non-compliance notices or sanctions for a myriad of reasons. But speak to the consultants who work with non-compliant providers to help fix their problems, and most will tell you that the consistent issue that causes failure of Aged Care Quality Assessments is poor governance. Providers of all sizes, locations, and demographics fall into this situation.
That said, many providers have great policies and procedures in place, but are they being monitored? Does what is happening within the aged care service reflect what the executive think is happening according to the documented processes? There is a greater need for executives, especially those not situated at the location where services are being provided, to visit the sites, talk to the residents, clients, families, and allied health providers and get feedback and ‘eyes-on’ evidence that things are working as they should.
In addition to physically sighting how things are going there is a need to facilitate better systems that give transparency to all levels of the organisation. Somewhere that provides a central point of access containing processes and procedures for staff to follow, documented evidence that this is being done and plans for continuous improvement to show that the organisation cares about providing a great place for our seniors to live. There is a need for better reporting and greater transparency and responsiveness at all times.
This helps gives consistent visibility to the staff, the executive, and the board of directors so they can ensure they are providing high quality, person centred care. That’s why Umbrella Solutions developed Coverage, a specialised tool that helps aged care providers take control of the Aged Care Quality Standards. With Coverage any one of your team can quickly collect and upload evidence and responses for each standard and requirement, access your policies, procedures, supporting documentation and toolkits, and produce reports for self-assessments, audits and plans for continuous improvement. If you have more than one service, no problem, you can also report across multiple facilities and home care services all in the one place. This helps executives monitor progress and make sure things are on track, even if when they are not located on site.
We also partner with Culturally Directed Care Solutions to provide a vast array of helpful resources to ensure your organisation is aligned with the Aged Care Quality Standards through the Resource Hub. Together, the combination of Coverage and the Resource Hub provides an easy to use, highly functional set of tools to assist in day-to-day management and prepare you for a quality audit or assessment.
If you would like a low-cost means of improving governance and transparency in your organisation, contact Umbrella Solutions and let our team help.