ICT innovation set to be the panacea for the aged care industry

It is estimated that 1.6 million Australians will require some sort of aged service by 2023 and ICT is being viewed as the panacea to reboot aged care services and help deliver high quality and accessible care.

The Productivity Commission has also forecast that the aged care workforce needs to grow to 900,000 by 2045. Recently  ACSA (Aged & Community Services Australia) CEO John Kelly said that while a workforce of this size was not achievable, ICT could be the solution.

“Universal deployment of ICT systems could effectively reduce this predicted growth to comfortably justify the investment. IT investment maximises the opportunity for innovation in the way services are delivered,” Professor Kelly said.

Health providers are becoming increasing aware that they need to offer more integrated services. However, the complexity of user interfaces and impractical remote control devices make the deployment of advanced signage and television systems nearly impossible in residential aged care. This area of innovation has been the focus of the development of Omniscreen Pilot software, which  solves these problems when implemented as an aged care resident engagement and video information system.

“Pilot is a versatile entertainment, information and digital signage solution, which can be customised to most enterprise requirements. We have had a very successful deployment for Southern Cross Care in Victoria where they use the system as an aged care resident engagement and video information system,” said Combitel Managing Director, Eugene Razbash.

The purpose-built solution can facilitate the delivery of  a variety of services in an aged care facility including resident and visitor signage. Used for announcements such as activities, weather, menu, news, etc, in – house entertainment, social and media sharing, media aids for treatment programs and compliance reporting.

A bespoke, ergonomically designed remote control has been created to minimise pain for arthritis sufferers or patients with limited dexterity.

Razbash says the system can save healthcare providers  over 50% infrastructure CAPEX savings for new buildings and can be deployed in the cloud leveraging NBN and other broadband access infrastructure.  He adds that by using a unified  platform it can also reduce IT management overheads by 50%.

“Our platform enhances the quality of aged care services by providing residents with a simple-to- use, engaging and empowering information and entertainment system. This is further enhanced by our aged care specific remote controls that are comfortable, easy and enjoyable to use. Our streamlined system allows staff to focus on client care and wellbeing,” he said.