The importance of continuous improvement plans

With the Strengthened Aged Care Quality Standards on the horizon, the importance of a streamlined approach to processes and procedures is now more important than ever.

One area which has always been instilled within aged care facilities is the continuous improvement plan – or CIP- in an ongoing effort to improve care and services.

What is continuous improvement?

Continuous improvement is an ongoing effort to improve the quality of care and services to residents. With the upcoming introduction of the concept of ‘high-quality care’, it is important to now utilise your CIP to drive performance to achieve this by:

• considering the needs of older persons and involving them in improvement activities
• ensuring the CIP is part of an overall quality system that assesses how well systems are working and the standards of care being achieved
• driving a results focused activity that identifies opportunities for improvement.

To achieve continuous improvement, the CIP must be central to a provider’s focus and put into practice at all levels by management and staff.

When can the commission request to see or obtain a copy of a provider’s CIP?

The commission can request this:

• during a visit to the service
• on an assessment contact not involving a visit
• at any other time.

The ‘Plan-Do-Check-Act’ cycle of improvement

The Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle is a continuous improvement model.

It consists of four phases.

1. Plan the improvement

This phase involves:

• analysing the current situation
• researching different ways to make improvements
• seeking input and feedback from stakeholders, and
• seeking input and feedback from stakeholders, and identifying actions to implement the plan.

2. Do the improvement

This phase involves:

• testing the options to find the preferred improvement
• involving the stakeholders who will directly benefit from the outcome
• keeping other stakeholders informed
• allocating resources to make sure the improvement is a success, and
• documenting the decisions made.

3. Check the improvement

This phase involves:

• checking if the improvement is delivering as intended
• assessing whether changes are needed or if a different option should be tried
• measuring the improvement (with audits, assessments and surveys), and
• documenting the evaluation methods and results.

Take your time with this phase. Gradual steps may deliver better results.

4. Act to standardise the process

There are two possible situations in this phase. If the improvement isn’t successful:

• analyse what can be done differently next time
• go through the cycle again with a different plan.

If successful, make sure that:

• all stakeholders are informed of the new process
• all necessary staff are trained
• policies and procedures are implemented, and
• change within the organisation is managed.

Keep track of your improvements

This shows the progress of your improvement initiatives. You can review, plan and identify what worked and what didn’t as well as report any time on your actions.

Introducing eCIP – The digital CIP plan for the aged care industry

Asset Journey is excited to release eCIP, a seamless plan for continuous improvement tailored to the aged care industry.

Some features include:

• Digital plans for operators to keep track of all actions, status and next steps
• Reporting tailored to the commission templates which can be produced at any time
• Transition between plans allowing you to close plans, with any open action items automatically transferring to the new plan
• Improvements Portal is a dedicated section that extracts all the improvements required and next steps required
• Assigning tasks allows actions to be assigned to people and get regular reminders
• Multiple plans give the ability to host multiple plans for various financial years or specific resident action plans.

If you are interested in hearing more, please join us at our webinar on Wednesday 16 October 2024. Click here to register to the webinar.

If would like to request a demo, please contact Aidan O’Flaherty on 0419 435 311 or visit www.assetjourney.com.