As Australia’s aged care sector undergoes significant digital transformation, Western NSW Primary Health Network (WNSW PHN) is committed to supporting Residential Aged Care Homes (RACHs) with the adoption and integration of digital health solutions. These tools are designed to improve the quality and safety of care, enhance communication between healthcare providers, and ensure that residents receive continuous, high-quality care.
The Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety identified the need for increased digital health adoption, including the use of interoperable digital care management systems and national strategies. WNSW PHN, in collaboration with the Australian Digital Health Agency and the Australian Department of Health, Disability and Ageing (DoHDA), works alongside RACHs to support this transition, ensuring digital health tools enhance the care delivery process, from clinical handovers to patient management.
This means aged care software systems should be interoperable with My Health Record to ensure seamless information sharing between aged care facilities and other healthcare providers, enhancing the continuity and quality of care for older Australians.
To read the DoHDA Data and Digital Strategy 2024-2029, download it here.
To improve the safety and quality of healthcare for older Australians, the ACCIS Standards were developed. These standards provide guidance for software developers and aged care providers on designing and implementing clinical information systems that meet the needs of residents, families, and care teams, ensuring seamless connectivity with national digital health infrastructure. Click here for more information.
We are investing in long term digital health maturity modelling of residential aged care homes to better understand the level of support required to help transition residential aged care homes to new digital health technologies.
WNSW PHN is actively working with RACHs to implement access to My Health Record, focusing on assisting with registration and establishing security & access policies. From 2026 , the focus is on supporting RACHs with clinical information software access to My Health Record, staff training and operationalisation for everyday care. When ready, we will also focus on Aged Care Transfer Summary functionality to support clinical handovers when an individual is transferred from an aged care setting to acute hospital care.
To better support medication management for older people in residential aged care homes, several changes were made to the National Health (Pharmaceutical Benefits) Regulations 2017, effective from 1 October 2024. These changes will help reduce potential safety risks, support resident choice of pharmacy and improve pharmacy workflows.
The program offers comprehensive, CPD-endorsed training to staff and clinicians, empowering you to implement telehealth in your practices. This training covers essential areas like infrastructure, logistics, and best practice models for aged care telehealth, helping to create consistency in how the aged care sector uses telehealth.
Onsite staff and clinicians working inside aged care settings
This includes personal care workers, nurses, specialists, managers and other staff working in aged care settings. The program is tailored to the needs of this audience by focusing not only on the practical aspects of telehealth but also how interactions with clinicians can be supported and enabled by aged care staff, residents, their families and carers.
Remote-end clinicians and other health professionals providing medical, health and wellbeing services to the aged care sector, practicing offsite
This includes GPs, medical specialists and allied health professionals like counsellors, dietitians and physiotherapists. The program is tailored to the needs of this audience by focusing not only on the practical aspects of telehealth but also on the models of care most typically associated with aged care patients like wound care and geriatrics.
The Residential Aged Care Telehealth Training Program provides comprehensive and targeted training specifically for the aged care industry.
It uses an optional up-front diagnostic enabling learners to skip topics they already have expertise in and allowing them to craft a personalised learning pathway.
The training also has accompanying resources to help aged care providers and clinicians plan and implement telehealth and manage associated organisational change.
The training program has been endorsed for continuing professional development points by the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP), the Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine (ACRRM), and the Australian College of Nursing.
The telehealth training program includes two distinct streams:
Each stream includes a series of eLearning modules. Each module is about 6 minutes long and modules are grouped into the following themes:
Supplementary resources are also available to help clinicians and aged care providers implement telehealth.
The training includes CPD-endorsed components for GPs and nurses (practitioners, registered and enrolled). GPs and nurses may also claim further CPD hours where they have explored additional research, reflected on their practice, or engaged in implementation of the learning.
For a list of the catalogue of modules and directions on how to register interest in becoming a host organisation for the training, click here.
Any Australian organisation that provides telehealth services from or to a commonwealth-funded residential aged care home is eligible to host the Telehealth Training Program, on the condition that it is provided to learners for free.
Alternatively, the Residential Aged Care Home Telehealth Training Program is available from the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission’s online learning platform, Alis.
If you’d like to access more information on the program, take a look at the resources linked below:
Participating PHNs include:
WNSW PHN provides tailored support, training, and resources to help RACHs with their digital health journey, including the integration of clinical information systems (ACCIS) and tools for managing digital health records and medication.
To learn more about these initiatives and how WNSW PHN can assist with the adoption of digital health solutions, please contact us.
