Specialist RN services aid aged care
Wellness & Lifestyles (W&L) has announced the addition of specialist registered nurse services to help aged care facilities receive the funding they need to provide the best services possible for residents. This addition to the W&L range of mobile allied health services recognise aged care staff – who are focused on the day to day care of their residents – are often too time challenged to study such changes to the Aged Care Funding Instrument (ACFI).
Wellness & Lifestyles (W&L) has announced the addition of specialist registered nurse services to help aged care facilities receive the funding they need to provide the best services possible for residents.
This addition to the W&L range of mobile allied health services recognise aged care staff – who are focused on the day to day care of their residents – are often too time challenged to study such changes to the Aged Care Funding Instrument (ACFI).
Nick Heywood-Smith, chief executive of W&L, said: “The ACFI is a very complicated tool and, with the new changes just introduced, many facilities stand to lose government funding while continuing to provide the same level of care.
“Our specialist ACFI nurses will assist our aged care facility clients to understand these changes and help them to correctly claim the correct entitlement for each resident.”
He continued: “We have found that on some sites, the staff are so busy with their clinical caseload that they just can’t find the time to perform resident reappraisals.”
Mr Heywood-Smith explained in light of the changes to ACFI, W&L Australia developed a system to help facilities through the reappraisal process so they can access the maximum funding to which they are entitled.
The introduction of specialist nurses into the process would provide a unique, ethical and professional perspective to the assessments.
“Our assessment process has shown that residents at aged care facilities rarely receive the interventions that are clinically indicated and to which they are entitled,” explained Mr Heywood-Smith.
“Either this, or the residents are receiving the interventions, but the facility is not receiving the correct government funding for those interventions.”
W&L offers an obligation-free initial onsite meeting with key clinical staff to review basic information and quickly determine whether implementing the process is feasible for the facility.
Details of the specialist RN services for ACFI assessment are available at http://www.wellnesslifestyles.com.au/healthcare-services/wl-acfi-nurses/
