Dr Tracey McDonald AM PhD FACN, Professor of Ageing, 2006
The aged care industry has achieved much over the past decade OF updating, upgrading, amalgamation, policy revision and so on, but much still needs to be done if the industry is to respond effectively to change pressures arising from demographic change, organisational and sectoral collaboration and expansion of management and nursing roles in care delivery and regulatory compliance activities geared to sustainable priorities.
In all of this high-level flurry, we need to maintain a practical approach to moving ideas into action and engage in industry discussion around the type and extent of support that those implementing ideas will require to be successful (or viable). Information on quality indicators and benchmarking needs to be easily accessed and used to highlight the benefits of gathering useful information and then moving it into practice where it will be the difference between care recipients have a good day or something else.
Hurdles facing those working to improve quality across aged care need to be identified at every level of the system, and an action plan put in place to overcome these hurdles.