If you’ve been following the news about the COVID-19 pandemic, you probably know that senior citizens are at increased risk of COVID-19 infection because they 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 and that avoidance of exposure is the single most important measure for preventing the virus.

This fact is of the utmost importance for aged care facilities because it means that all the residents are at risk of contracting COVID-19.

With that in mind, the Australian government released a series of rules and regulations that bound aged care facilities to follow a set of safety and health standards to protect all the residents, workers, and visitors from the virus. 

We at Sine take the Australian government rules seriously. We are ready to help aged care facilities protect every senior citizen and worker within their premises.

In this article, we will discuss the advice the government has given aged care facilities and share how Sine can help you comply with all the regulations. 

What the new rules and regulations for aged care facilities are?

The regulations the Australian government proposed to aim at protecting the three most endangered groups within an aged care facility: visitors, managers, and facilities. 

Let’s take a more in-depth look at these new rules.

Rules for residents

  • Residents who are well don’t need to wear a mask
  • Postpone extensive group visits, gatherings, and external excursions
  • If you develop symptoms of COVID-19, you will be kept separate from other people and will not be able to see visitors.

Rules for facilities

  • Facilities should screen new and returning residents before entry
  • Workers will continue to provide support and care for you while you are isolated
  • Facilities should put up signs and explain the steps they are taking to protect residents’ health

Rules for visitors

  • Children 16 years and under shouldn’t visit the facility
  • Visitors with a fever or symptoms of a respiratory illness can’t visit the facility
  • Visitors who have returned from overseas in the last 14 days can’t visit the facility

What they actually mean for aged care facilities and visitors?

The new regulations stress the fact that residential aged care facilities are responsible for establishing emergency plans in the event of COVID-19 outbreaks. 

It also means that aged care facilities are responsible for enabling connectedness between aged care patients and their families. 

For both aged care and visitors, keeping connected during these trying times is essential. So, consider helping your patients keep in touch by phone or video calls. 

Your emergency plans should include: 

  • A method for seeking medical assessment and diagnosis
  • Protocols to rapidly implement enhanced infection control measures
  • Rapid notification for staff, families, carers, and your local public health unit
  • Maintaining adequate supplies of surgical gloves, masks, gowns and hand sanitizer

How Sine can help aged care facilities

QR codes 

If you have workers who come and go from your facility every day, QR codes are a good way of signing them in remotely without having to endanger your front desk staff or your residents. 

All your workers have to do is to scan their codes remotely and automatically be checked in, enabling you to keep track of your workers even if they’re not physically on-site. 

How Sine’s QR codes help aged care facilities?

With Sine you can:

  • Approve or reject visitor passes
  • Offer a contactless check-in solution
  • Check and register visitor and worker’s temperature

Contact tracing

Contact tracing uses systems that rely on GPS location readings and scanning QR codes to know where the staff are. This has been done to provide users with more privacy, which in turn could encourage take-up.

The whole point of this process is to make sure that aged care facilities know for sure where their people are: where the patients are, who might be sick, and which workers are on-site working.

How Sine’s contact tracing helps aged care facilities?

With Sine you can:

  • Create pre-screening questions
  • Track workers’ check-ins/outs

Geofencing 

A geofence is an invisible boundary around your workplace that helps you gain visibility over everything that happens within it. 

In the context of visitor management in aged care facilities, a geofence helps you detect the positions of every worker, patient and visitor within your facility. With a geofence, when a person’s mobile phone enters an area, Sine’s app triggers an event that prompts visitors and workers to check-in.

How Sine’s geofencing tracing helps aged care facilities?

With Sine you can:

  • Track worker attendance
  • Keep an eye on every person in your facility
  • Show patients, visitors, and workers important information