1 July 2019 marks the beginning of the new aged care quality standards. The standards support a new focus where personalised care, dignity and choice are at the forefront of every consumer interaction.
The new standards centre around consumer dignity and choice
personal and clinical care
services and supports for daily living
service environment
feedback and complaints
human resources
organisational governance and
ongoing assessment
The new standards are accompanied by a statement to help judge whether a site meets the standard’s objectives. More information on this can be found here or watch the video below.
With such a strong focus on individual care, there is also a corresponding onus on care providers to facilitate this efficiently and effectively. This is no mean feat as increasing choice will inevitably mean an increase in work and resources to provide for consumers’ many
and varied preferences. To put this challenge into context, let’s consider the dining experience Residents spend, on average, 45 per cent of their day dining, making it vitally important to provide food that matches their cultural tastes and preferences. For care providers, choice represents a paradigm shift away from an institutionalised food service to more of a true restaurant style service with à la carte menus, sophisticated billing systems, all while still catering for the complexity of individual diets and texture modified needs. Some of the strain imposed by this expansion of options can be reduced by supplementing the kitchen with meal components from external suppliers, but for any effective change to be implemented, processes need be reviewed and streamlined for maximum efficiency. To tackle this head on the best strategy is technology. At SoupedUp Solutions we provide software to manage and coordinate the meal preferences of residents. We facilitate menu planning, upscaling and nutrition to provide residents a truly personalised dining experience. Our digital platform streamlines administrative processes so carers can spend more time caring about people, not paperwork. You can view the full documentation as well as more in-depth video guides on the AACQA website https://www.agedcarequality.gov.au/