Something to smile about
An unexpected outcome of a tech implementation sees more Autumn Aged Care residents visiting the mobile dentist.
Since Autumn Aged Care rolled out an app to improve communication to residents’ family members, no one has been shocked to see fewer complaints.
What has been surprising, however, is the uptick in resident bookings to visit the mobile dentist. The app – Brenna – allows nurses to send care updates and other information to residents’ family members.
Prior to trialling Brenna, Autumn Aged Care would receive two-to-three referrals a month for dentistry in response to traditional methods to communicate scheduled visits like email and noticeboard, says Yuri Stroungis –the organisation’s executive of quality and education.
“One of our homes wanted to try to see if they got a better response and request for referrals by using Brenna. Within 48 hours the home received an influx of requests and as an outcome the home had a spike of 12 residents being seen that month. This was the same case at our other two homes when they tried the same,” Stroungis tells Australian Ageing Agenda.
Brenna was co-designed with aged care staff at Tullich Family Communities in 2021 and launched in August 2022. It features drop-down lists, checklists, prompts and questions to guide nurses in sending clear, easy-to-understand and timely updates about a resident to family members in real time.
All authorised family members receive care updates and news information at the same time. The app also provides access to family and private chat functions and contact information for the aged care home.
Autumn Aged Care – which has a lot of multicultural staff – sought out the solution following a spike in complaints from family members about communication issues.
Post implementation, over 77 days, 143 staff at three Autumn Aged Care homes sent 2,781 updates about the 461 residents in their care. That equates to a little over 36 updates a day. On average, each update was read by 1.67 different family members.
Positive results include no more communication-related complaints and families are happier, says Stroungis. Updates are also synched to progress notes in their clinical system – eCase – which means staff don’t need to double up in documentation and have more time for other duties, he adds.
On why Brenna has led to increased engagement with dental appointments, Stroungis says he thinks it’s a combination of the convenience for family members and valuable information from staff.
“Representatives receive the notification instantly and can look at it later when they have time by simply going into the app rather than scrolling through multiple emails. Or reading it on the noticeboard and possibly forgetting by the time they leave,” he tells AAA.
“Representatives I believe also had a better understanding of the importance of oral health as our team wrote a brief description on how oral health can impact quality of life. When their oral health is not well looked after this in turn impacts their oral nutrition and risk of weight loss.”
More awareness on the importance of oral health is a positive step, according to aged care dentist Dr Mark Wotherspoon, who says more is needed to improve the situation for residents nationally.
“We know the oral health of aged care residents across Australia in general is extremely poor and there are many research papers that prove this claim,” Wotherspoon tells AAA.
“City, suburban, rural and remote; all locations have staggering levels of mouth diseases that impact function, such as eating and speaking, nutrition, comfort and dignity, including aesthetics and bad breath,” says Wotherspoon, who is an educator and spokesperson for the Australian Dental Association.
He says oral health is the responsibility of everyone who engages with and supports a resident’s health and wellbeing. That includes family members, doctors, nurses, care staff and allied health professionals including all oral health professionals. Led by dentists and dental specialists everyone needs to work together, says Wotherspoon.
Technology can help.
“Seeking dental opinions and timely referrals are now much easier with the use of tele-dentistry. Simply, an image is taken of any oral health concern and sent securely to an oral health professional off site, along with notes, seeking an early form of triage and recommendation.”
We enjoy seeing our residents smile
Stroungis says they know that residents who have regular dental reviews are more likely to have fewer health issues and maintain their weight.
“They are able to enjoy the joys of life like sweets, different types of foods and drinks without having to worry about pain or poor-fitting dentures that fall out, or feeling embarrassed because of poor oral health, bad breath or poor-fitting dentures that affect their ability to communicate effectively,” he says.
“We enjoy seeing our residents smile. It is a real disappointment to us when residents cannot smile because they are embarrassed.”
We hope you enjoyed this article – please add your comments below
Visit our features portal for more in-depth stories
