A video presentation can be found at Broadband for Seniors.

For full details, please see the website at ConnectCare.

Overview

The ConnectCare project is developing and launching an innovative suite of integrated aged care applications for remote and regional aged care facilities that will be delivered over broadband infrastructure. For the first time, remote and regional aged care facilities will have access to a suite of broadband based Information and Communications Technology (ICT) applications that will enable them to significantly improve care services but more importantly make them more affordable to their residents. This will include an integrated aged care resident health record that can be accessed by General Medical Practitioners (GPs). The project will provide aged care organisations with between 50 and 150 beds in regional and remote areas with a suite of managed services around infrastructure, residential care applications and communications. The integrated offering of all three will be a first for Australia. Through the project, aged care facilities will be able to access, via innovative broadband technology, a suite of applications that will enable them to deliver not only a high level of care but also enable improved online claiming services and assessment methods to help reduce the cost of delivering aged care. This project has been co-funded by a $5.6 million contribution from the Federal Government, who have recognised the strong community based demand for the level of care that is provided in remote and regional areas to be equal to that of metropolitan areas. ConnectCare is a critical project for Australia, because it will help to ensure that smaller regional operators in the not-for-profit sector can maintain a strong level of care for local residents through smart innovative IT solutions. The result will be that people living in non-metropolitan and remote residential care homes will no longer be hampered by their geographical location. There will be parity of care services for the aged on a national basis. For aged care residents the quality of their pain, symptom and disability management will substantially improve, with faster and more accurate diagnosis and treatment and easier access to doctors and specialists.

Services

The ConnectCare service will offer the following fully integrated services:

• Suite of integrated residential care management applications (care plans, assessments, financials, payroll). This will also include an integrated clinical Aged Care resident clinical record.
• Suite of basic Information Technology (IT infrastructure (broadband access, network connection, security, firewall, Microsoft applications)
• Suite of Communication infrastructure (mobility, wireless LAN, email and filters, IP phone, VoD and Video Conference)

All of the above services will be delivered as a hosted service on a pay as you go basis and priced to aged care facilities on a monthly basis.  This eliminates the need for extensive capital investment by the target market, which has been a barrier to adoption for this market to date. For the first time ConectCare provides an affordable IT aged care solution for smaller remote aged care facilities. This market segment continues to face economic pressures and requires smarter IT operational efficiencies to provide ongoing services for aged residents in regional areas.

The need

As Australia's population ages, our reliance on, and demand for, aged care institutions will continue to increase.  In addition, there are a number of key issues that have highlighted the disparity in services delivered to non-metropolitan areas by Australia's health care system.  The number of Australians who are over 70 years old grows 3.3 times faster than the growth of the total population. With chronic disease now accounting for 50% of acute health expenditure, there is growing pressure on residential care homes to manage the treatment and care of ageing residents with increasingly complex illnesses (as a means of minimising admissions to hospitals).  Pressures are compounded in regional and remote areas by the variance in care service levels.  Accessing medical expertise, information and treatment in non-metropolitan residential care homes increases the risk profile of both the resident and the home. Few non-metropolitan residential care homes have rapid access to appropriate advice and treatment and yet it is clearly understood the welfare of the patient is much higher when they can remain within their community when moving from their resident home into an aged care facility. This problem is further compounded for the small not for profit aged care facilities in rural areas.  These sites cannot enjoy the efficiencies and shared costs of larger facilities and many are either being purchased by the larger private operators and becoming unaffordable for local residents, or forced to close leaving a gap in the community. The individual small operators cannot gain the effiencies themselves and look to organisations such as Church Resources to assist in saving moving, gaining efficiencies or provide leadership on ICT initiatives to develop the sector. With the increasing shortage of clinical and medical professionals and practitioners in regional Australia, it is critical that the nation develops new and innovative strategies that, when executed, will provide an improved quality of care service and overall improvements in operational efficiency to ensure a long term strategic approach to caring for all ageing Australians, regardless of location and size of facility.

Further information

If you would like to learn more about ConnectCare please contact: Con Koulouris
Director of Telecommunications and ICT Services, Church Resources
Phone:  02 9439 2622
Email: ckoulouris@churchresources.com.au