Delivered care trend resumes after brief decline
Aged care consultancy firm Mirus Australia’s April Industry Analysis shows total care time has increased from February to March despite registered nurse time decreasing, but data scientist Tyler Fisher says causation can be tricky to determine.
From February to March there was a total care time increase of 0.36 per cent, aged care consultancy firm Mirus Australia notes in its April Industry Analysis, and a decrease of registered nurse time of 2.63 per cent. This result resumes the industry average delivered time increase trend – which had briefly declined.
Mirus data scientist Tyler Fisher told Australian Ageing Agenda that while it is surprising to see RN time and total time moving in different directions, causation can be difficult to determine.
“As a smaller proportion of the roster, fluctuations and disruptions have a greater effect on RN time, and the overall increase to total time was lessened by the slight drop in RN time,” he told AAA.
“The general trend for this measure is up but as observed short-term movements can deviate from the trend, however, not totally reversing it. We expect this upward trend to continue as providers endeavour to match their rosters and care targets, much in the same way we observed the increase to 200 minutes.
“As the sector averages approach meeting its targets, a plateau of both care time delivery and claiming will introduce more granular strategies – as the blunt objectives of increase rosters or increase claims must be refined to optimise the opposing forces of finite resources, defined funding and substantial targets or requirements.”
Other sector trends
Mirus Australia also found that enrolled nurse minutes saw an 1.66 per cent increase in minutes and there was a 1.14 per cent increase in assistants in nursing minutes, while allied health had a large decrease in minutes (6.3 per cent), as did diversional therapy/activities officers (6.07 per cent).
The industry analysis also revealed occupancy increased again, by 0.41 per cent, while care minutes managed to keep pace – even showing an increase.
There was also a 0.75 per cent – or $2.22 – increase in the average daily subsidy and on 1 March the AN-ACC price increased to $282.44, which Mirus noted would support the higher wages for RNs and enrolled nurses.
From February to March there was an 18.16 per cent decrease in new permanent admissions across the industry, and 24.14 per cent of March admissions were stays under six months.
Mr Fisher also noted that the new Aged Care Act would set a higher benchmark for care delivery, compliance, and accountability.
“Most providers are taking a proactive approach to embrace change and work towards transformation. Both the Act and the strategic direction providers are taking will support the observed trends of increasing care minutes along with quality and consumer focus,” he told AAA.
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