By now, you probably know that aged care facilities are at increased risk of COVID-19 infection and are more vulnerable to complications if they do become infected.
You probably know too that since there is currently no vaccination to prevent COVID-19, avoidance of exposure is the single most important measure for preventing the virus.
Recently, in a move to care for all the aged care patients in the country, the Australian government stated that:
Under the state and territory directions, aged care providers are required to take all reasonable steps to ensure that a person does not enter or remain on the premises if they do not meet the flu vaccination (and other) requirements set out in the relevant state and territory directions.
That means aged care facilities must implement measures to prevent the introduction of COVID-19 into their facilities and make sure they are ready to manage outbreaks of COVID-19 if they occur.
The good news is that Sine can help you take care of all the aged care patients within your facility. Stay with us and learn how Sine can help you manage your visitors during the outbreak.
General advice on hygiene measures for COVID-19
While research into the COVID-19 virus is ongoing, we know the virus is transmitted through direct contact with respiratory droplets of an infected person (through coughing and sneezing), and touching surfaces contaminated with the virus.
That’s why you need to make sure that your workers stay safe so they don’t bring the virus with them to your facility.
These are some basic measures you need to take to protect your aged care residents and your facility:
- Ensure visitors perform hand hygiene before entering and after leaving the resident’s room and the facility
- Promote the annual flu vaccine to visitors
- Provide adequate handwashing facilities and alcohol-based hand rub tissues
- Place lined disposal receptacles where people can see them
- Perform contactless sign-in
- Send important messages to your staff and your residents using contactless channels
What are the restrictions on entry into an aged care facility?
Simply put, under the state and territory directions, aged care providers are required to take all reasonable steps to ensure that a person does not enter or remain on the premises if they do not meet the flu vaccination (and other) requirements set out in the relevant state and territory directions.
For instance, approved providers should seek appropriate evidence of immunization status from individuals seeking to enter the residential aged care facility.
Similarly, appropriate evidence may be a statement or record from a health practitioner; or an immunization history statement.
Also, it’s always a good idea to check your visitors’ and workers’ temperature for signs of fever every time they attempt to gain access to your facility. It’s best to use a temperature gun to avoid the use of regular thermometers that can carry contaminated fluids to other people.
These are some of the restrictions the Australian Government has placed on aged care facilities:
- Limit visits to a short duration (ask family members to stay for a maximum of 1 hour)
- No large group visits or gatherings (including school groups of any size)
- Limit visits to a maximum of two visitors at one time per day
- Children aged 16 years or less should not be permitted to visit
- Conduct visits in the resident’s room, outdoors, or in a specific area designated by the residential care facility
How can Sine help you care for your aged patients?
Saying no to visitors is hard, we know that. People care for their loved ones and want to make sure that their parents and grandparents are being properly cared for, but you can’t allow them all to flock to your facility in a disorderly fashion.
On the contrary, you need to assure them that everything is all right and set a way for them to monitor their loved ones and visit them without fear of spreading the virus or any other disease that could prove fatal.
Here are three of Sine’s features that can help you protect your residents:
Contactless check-in
The free Sine Pro mobile app enables visitors to check-in and out of your site swiftly without contact, and without hardware.
Contactless check-in presents a quick and easy way of checking in visitors to your aged care facility without having to print countless sheets of paper, waste time or require contractors to touch multiple surfaces.
With Sine Pro, you can create a workflow to speed the induction process and prepare your contractors even before they set foot on your worksite.
QR codes
When a visitor arrives at your aged care facility, they scan their Fast Track QR code from their mobile invite to check in on your sign in kiosk (if you have it) or your iPad without contact. Hosts are notified of the visitor’s arrival when check-in is complete.
Each time you invite a visitor to your facility, the site’s QR code can be sent to them. Visitors can scan that QR code and complete their contactless check-in.
The best thing about QR codes is that once you start doing this daily, you will get an accurate overview of your visitors and workers, where they are, their entry time, and whether or not they have completed the required workflows to gain access to your facility.
COVID-19 pre-screening questions
With Sine, you can create COVID-19 check-in questions for your visitors and keep your facility safe. Receive notifications when your visitor arrives and choose to accept or reject with custom messages.
With our newest feature, you can take your check-in forms to the next level by putting all incorrect responses into a ‘pending’ state and stopping them from resubmitting with new answers.
Users should only use Sine for COVID-19 purposes in accordance with the provisions of their local laws. Sine is not responsible for the capture of information. See Sine’s Terms of Use.