Under the Strengthened Aged Care Quality Standards coming into effect in 2025, standard 5 ‘Clinical Care’ requires aged care providers to work towards implementing a digital clinical information system that:
- a) integrates clinical information into nationally agreed digital health and aged care records
- b) supports interoperability using established national Healthcare Identifiers, terminology and digital health standards
- c) has processes for workers and others to access information in compliance with legislative requirements.
The Australian Digital Health Agency (ADHA) have been collaborating with the aged care sector to implement the Aged Care Clinical Information System (ACCIS) Standards for use in residential aged care homes, which will support this standard.
The ACCIS Standards guide software developers and aged care providers on recommended minimum software requirements for clinical information systems and electronic Medication Management. The ACCIS Standards will provide the foundations for future information sharing and interoperability by encouraging critical elements to be the same across all software products used in residential aged care.
These recommended minimum software requirements have been tested with software developers and other aged care sector stakeholders to ensure they are practical, feasible and cost effective to adopt. The ADHA will continue to work with the sector to ensure supports, resources and education can be made available to support the adoption. More information can be found on the ADHA website.