Residents and families overview

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HealthCube's Preventive Aged Care (PAC) practice offers residents of Australia's aged care facilities a proactive, dedicated, needs-driven clinical service that aims to address deteriorations in a resident's medical condition before they become serious.

• All medical services delivered through HealthCube's PAC practice are bulk-billed, meaning no out-of-pocket expenses for residents or facilities.

• HealthCube's focus on aged care and its preventive clinical model is driven by a simple vision: to improve the quality of life of aged care residents by optimising their health and wellbeing.

• HealthCube's PAC service responds to a widening gap between demand for clinical services from Australia's growing aged care population, and the ability of traditional GPs to meet that demand.

The growing health demands of the broader community often leave GPs little time to devote to the complex needs of the very old meaning their visits to aged care facilities can of necessity be hasty and brief, when they are made at all.

This problem is widely acknowledged within the health care industry. The Australian Medical Association noted in March 2009 that residents of aged care facilities were "missing out on high-quality medical care" because of a lack of access to doctors. Moreover, this clinical demand-supply gap is growing.

• HealthCube-employed GPs utilise cutting-edge information technology and innovative workflows to better capture, manage and secure health information. This is an efficiency edge traditional GPs don't have.

• Aged care facilities that partner with HealthCube to offer the PAC service are attended by a HealthCube-employed GP as frequently as clinically required, typically no less than one session a week, and more regularly as required.

• But the PAC service offers much more than just the comfort and security of a GP in regular attendance, important though that is. Once a resident is admitted as a PAC patient, our GP sets about building a comprehensive picture of his or her clinical history and condition, from which an individualised medical care plan is developed.

This pro-active preventive approach typically involves an annual Comprehensive Medical Assessment (CMA), a Residential Medication Management Review (RMMR) and a quarterly Case Conference. The HealthCube GP also develops an in- and after-hours emergency care plan for each PAC patient.

This plus regularly scheduled preventive consultations can catch declines in resident health before they become serious, reducing hospital admissions and improving resident quality of life.

• HealthCube ensures that all relevant medical information is shared with the care team, by distributing reports such as the Comprehensive Medical Assessment. This increases the number of informed eyes looking out for the resident.

• HealthCube also offers aged care residents a stand-alone annual Comprehensive Medical Assessment (CMA) where appropriate. The cost of this service is also fully met by Medicare.

HealthCube believes the CMA is the key to superior aged care delivery, because it gives carers vital baseline information on the health status of a resident and provides a solid basis for the development of care and medication plans that optimise quality of life and minimise unexpected health crises.

• HealthCube policy is to share all relevant medical information it gathers with the resident's care team. This increases the number of informed eyes looking out for the resident.

But because HealthCube records are compiled in a common format and electronically stored, they are also potentially accessible by other clinicians who may at some stage be involved in the resident's care - for example ambulance paramedics and emergency and/or ward staff at local hospitals. Need-to-know access at a few keystrokes to a patient's medical information can save valuable - perhaps vital - time in an emergency.

But this only happens if the resident or his or her guardian wishes. Informed consent is at the core of HealthCube's practice. Before any medical care can begin, the resident nominates whom they will permit to access their information. To find out more about HealthCube's stringent privacy and security protocols click here.