Prepared & Presented by: Michael Peachey

Are you a GP who it feels like you’re being consistently called upon for simply writing down a diagnosis for a resident who has a chronic condition?

Or are you an aged care facility who is unable to access the funding to reflect the care you’re currently provided due to seemingly administrative hold-ups?

This is not a unique situation. Many GP’s and facilities are feeling the burden of this specific requirement of ACFI funding, to a point where ultimately it’s the residents that suffer. Many GP’s feel like their resources are being misused, and many facilities feel like this is documentation requirement is stopping them from doing their business of looking after their residents.

This is why Wellness & Lifestyles has created “Aged Care Clinical Diagnoses”, which helps to solve these issues.

What this e-learning module can do for you…

• If you’re a GP, this session will help you appreciated why facilities need a simple diagnosis, and the impact it has on the staff, the facility, and ultimately the residents.
• If you are a nurse at an aged care facility, this session can help you understand some aspects of how the ACFI works, to help get ‘buy-in’ from all involved in the ACFI process… to ensure that the facility gets appropriately rewarded for the work that you’re already doing!

Included in this e-learning module is…

• An overview of the ACFI – putting it in context
• How correct documentation substantiates the ACFI
• How the correct documentation actually assists in improving resident outcomes
• Empowering the residents – giving them a choice of interventions

Who should use this e-learning module?

You should go through this training if you are a GP who visits aged care facilities, or you are a nurse who is involved in the ACFI process… a shared background will help to improve productive collaboration, and increase benefits to the end user – the resident!

This presentation was developed at an aged care facility’s request. They were annoying the GP’s, and the GP’s were frustrating the facility. It was a lose-lose situation. After watching this presentation the nursing staff felt more confident in speaking to the GP’s and explaining why diagnoses are so important for the residents.

Not all problems can be resolved by watching a quick presentation, and then taking this information and applying it. This is why this presentation was developed in such a way that it’s relevant to both the GP’s and the nursing staff. By both parties being able watch the same presentation, it straight away produces some common ground to facilitate productive conversation.

It’s the ACFI’s requirement that formal diagnoses be documented – not ours, and not the facility’s. Watching this presentation helps get everyone on board to understand why it’s so important to the most important person in the facility – the resident. We believe this is the best way to solve this problem, because it gets everyone sharing common beliefs, and sees the benefit for the resident. Because at the end of the day – that’s why we visit the facility.

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This poster details the Australian standards for textured modified foods and fluids. It outlines the different consistency of foods and fluids and describes which foods are best for residents and those to avoid. Information which every aged care facility must have!

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Prepared by: Daniella Kittel

Providing knowledge about the surgery, hospital stay and step by step guidelines to follow for a successful rehabilitation after a TKR.

Do you find that you have questions about knee pain and replacement surgery? Do you want to achieve the best outcomes from your rehabilitation? Do you want to know how to best treat your know at different stages of rehabilitation?

• It takes several months to full recover from a TKR but there are some important goals to achieve early on in the rehabilitation program in order to have good long term outcomes.
• You’ll find that this e-book will give you control of your rehabilitation by having a good knowledge of what you should do and why.

What this e-book can do for you!

• Give an understanding of the anatomy and biomechanics of the knee joint
• Explain the degenerative process of the knee and what contributes to this process
• Explain what surgery involves and why one would choose to have surgery.
• Prepare you with what to expect for your hospital stay after surgery.
• Have an all you need to know comprehensive guide to ACL rehabilitation with exercises and progressions
• Enhance your rehabilitation program with up to date information and all the important details

Included in this e-book is:

• Knee anatomy
• Knee degeneration
• Reasons for TKR surgery
• Pro-operative advice and planning
• Operation procedure
• Acute inpatient rehabilitation (Week 1)
• Outpatient phase (up to 3-4 months)
• Hydrotherapy program

Who should use this e-book?

Anyone who has knee joint problems or has had a knee replacement and requires rehabilitation would benefit from this e-book. By understanding the processes going on in the tissues of your knee joint and what can accelerate degeneration, you can help to look after your knee. By understanding when surgery it is best to choose surgery to treat your knee and what the process involves, you can prepare yourself to maximize your long term outcomes. By having a resource to guide you through your rehabilitation, you will be empowered to make the most out of your knee’s recovery.

Therapists should refer to this e-book as a guide to their TKR rehabilitation in consultation with clients so they are able to set common goals and programs to achieve them. Therapists can provide their clients with a guide to their rehabilitation complete with demonstrative photos and exercise explanations. Of course, the program is able to be modified to your client’s individual needs.

We realise that by just reading this book you are not going to be proficient in all aspects of ACL rehabilitation. Practical training by a specialist physiotherapist or occupational therapist is always recommended. Wellness & Lifestyles Australia can provide you with these therapists if needed. The book should only be used as a resource document following some interactive training. E-learning modules by W&L are also available.

To read the Total Knee Replacement E-book, please log in below.

When a resident is having difficulty swallowing or are observed to be choking, many facilities opt for the “we’ll just put them on thickened fluids” approach.

Overheard in a facility’s nurses station last week:

PERSONAL CARER: “Mr. ***** is coughing a lot when he drinks”
NURSE: “Let’s try him on thickened fluids”

By implementing thickened fluids without a proper swallowing assessment, this is actually placing residents at risk of dehydration and aspiration.

Here is why:

• Thickened fluids may exacerbate some symptoms of dysphagia, impacting safety and reducing quality of life.
• Health care settings are obliged to ensure thickened fluids are provided to the correct consistency. Incorrect consistencies jeopardise hydration and risk the safety of residents, and may increase a facility’s liability.
• Thickened fluids are costly and have a high level of wastage.

New guidelines released by the Australian Government recommend a swallowing assessment by a speech pathologist should be conducted before putting residents on thickened fluids or adjusting fluid consistency.

DID YOU KNOW THAT RN’s/EN’s OVERPRESCRIBE THICKENED FLUIDS BY 30%?

Do you have 10 residents on thickened fluids?

• Having 10 residents on thickened fluids costs approximately $3,300 annually
• Studies show that between 50% and 70% of thickened fluid is wasted
• Between this unnecessary prescription and the wastage this can actually account for about $2,000 of the $3,000 cost!
• Speech pathology assessments reduce the number of residents on thickened fluids by nearly a quarter… saving costs and reducing risk

AND THIS IS JUST FOR 10 RESIDENTS!!

Correct consistency reduces the risk of dehydration and aspiration…

DID YOU KNOW UP TO A THIRD OF RESIDENTS ARE DEHYDRATED?

RESEARCH SHOWS THAT HOSPITALISED RESIDENTS WITH DEHYRDATION HAVE A MORTALITY RATE OF 46%.

AGED CARE FACILITIES HAVE BEEN HELD LIABLE FOR DEHYDRATION!!

An assessment by a W&L Speech Pathologist can not only save you money, improve resident dehydration and safety, but can also reduce your liability risk.

For more information please do not hesitate to contact Wellness & Lifestyles on 8331 3000 or visit our website www.wellnesslifestyles.com.au

This is often the case after a stroke. A stroke may be ischemic (a blood clot or embolism) or hemorrhagic (bleeding in the brain). Language may be impaired when a stroke occurs in the left hemisphere of the brain, where our language centers are located.

A stroke may impair our ability to comprehend and express language. This is called aphasia. Aphasia impacts individuals differently – no aphasia is the same. Some aphasics may know what they want to say, but experience difficulties finding appropriate words. Others may produce irrelevant language consisting of nonsense words, or be unable to speak altogether. Others may be able to hear speech, but be unable to make sense of the words or follow a conversation. Occasionally individuals may be unaware that anything is wrong.

In some cases, aphasia is fairly mild and you might not notice it right away. In other cases, it can be very severe, affecting all modalities of language: speaking, understanding, reading and writing. An estimated 40,000 to 48,000 stroke events occur in Australia every year, equating to one every 11-13 minutes. Approximately 1500 South Australians develop aphasia annually.

Aphasia is devastating for individuals and families. It may impact an individual’s ability to work, socialise, and maintain relationships. According to the National Aphasia Association, 72% of aphasic individuals surveyed did not return to work, while 28% felt unable to resume previous roles due to a communication impairment.

Furthermore, approximately 70% of aphasic individuals surveyed felt that others avoided contact with them due to a communication difficulty, leading to social isolation, and feelings of inadequacy and frustration.

Speech Pathology input may offer hope to individuals afflicted with aphasia, by facilitating communication skills to enable aphasics to return to work, maintain relationships and resume their lives. Clinical evidence and research findings agree that individuals with aphasia benefit from Speech Pathology input. A Speech Pathologist is especially trained in diagnosing and treating aphasia. Speech Pathologists can determine the pattern of the particular aphasia and implement suitable therapy programmes to target individual goals. Aphasia therapy aims to improve a person’s ability to communicate by helping him or her use remaining language abilities, restore language abilities as much as possible, compensate for language problems, and learn other methods of communicating.

Speech Pathologists also provide counselling, aphasia training, and information to families and caregivers. This support provides families and caregivers with skills to promote language abilities, and assists in developing coping strategies for the primary carers of those afflicted with aphasia.

Wellness and Lifestyles’ mobile Speech Pathologists are specifically trained in aphasia therapy and can provide strategies to facilitate improved communication in the comfort of your own home. Please call 8331 3000 for more information.

OCCUPATIONAL THERAPISTS (OT’S) CAN HELP ALL THREE DOMAINS!

• OT’s are allied health professionals who can prescribe and carry out complex pain management procedures… just like our physiotherapists!
• OT’s can perform functional task assessments to maximize claims in areas of nutritional support, mobility, personal hygiene, and toileting.
• OT’s can perform the PAS and Cornell (CSSD) assessments, and help guide which behaviours your care staff should be charting.
• OT’s can provide directives for skin integrity management and the management of arthritic joints.
• OT’s can perform assessments and devise mobility and care plans… just like our physiotherapists!

We’re finding that facilities that are using a combination of W&L physiotherapists and occupational therapists are the ones who are optimizing their ACFI income, whilst getting better resident outcomes!

Occupational Therapists are allied health professionals who can improve resident care, and have a direct impact on the following areas of the ACFI:

• Nutrition
• Mobility
• Personal Hygiene
• Toileting
• Cognitive Skill
• Depression
• Complex Health Care Procedures

Their assessments and recommendations can also indirectly impact other areas such as wandering, verbal behaviours, physical behaviours, and medication timings!

To find out how W&L occupational therapists can not only increase your funding in the Complex Health Care domain, but help speed up your appraisal process call us now on (08) 8331 3000

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Prepared by: Wellness & Lifestyles’ Physiotherapists
Presented by: Michael Peachey

Are you a GP who it feels like you’re being consistently called upon for simply writing down a diagnosis for a resident who has a chronic condition?

Or are you an aged care facility who is unable to access the funding to reflect the care you’re currently provided due to seemingly administrative hold-ups?

This is not a unique situation. Many GP’s and facilities are feeling the burden of this specific requirement of ACFI funding, to a point where ultimately it’s the residents that suffer. Many GP’s feel like their resources are being misused, and many facilities feel like this is documentation requirement is stopping them from doing their business of looking after their residents.

This is why Wellness & Lifestyles has created “Aged Care Clinical Diagnoses”, which helps to solve these issues.

What this e-learning module can do for you…

• If you’re a GP, this session will help you appreciated why facilities need a simple diagnosis, and the impact it has on the staff, the facility, and ultimately the residents.
• If you are a nurse at an aged care facility, this session can help you understand some aspects of how the ACFI works, to help get ‘buy-in’ from all involved in the ACFI process… to ensure that the facility gets appropriately rewarded for the work that you’re already doing!

Included in this e-learning module is…

• An overview of the ACFI – putting it in context
• How correct documentation substantiates the ACFI
• How the correct documentation actually assists in improving resident outcomes
• Empowering the residents – giving them a choice of interventions

Who should use this e-learning module?

You should go through this training if you are a GP who visits aged care facilities, or you are a nurse who is involved in the ACFI process… a shared background will help to improve productive collaboration, and increase benefits to the end user – the resident!

This presentation was developed at an aged care facility’s request. They were annoying the GP’s, and the GP’s were frustrating the facility. It was a lose-lose situation. After watching this presentation the nursing staff felt more confident in speaking to the GP’s and explaining why diagnoses are so important for the residents.

Not all problems can be resolved by watching a quick presentation, and then taking this information and applying it. This is why this presentation was developed in such a way that it’s relevant to both the GP’s and the nursing staff. By both parties being able watch the same presentation, it straight away produces some common ground to facilitate productive conversation.

It’s the ACFI’s requirement that formal diagnoses be documented – not ours, and not the facility’s. Watching this presentation helps get everyone on board to understand why it’s so important to the most important person in the facility – the resident. We believe this is the best way to solve this problem, because it gets everyone sharing common beliefs, and sees the benefit for the resident. Because at the end of the day – that’s why we visit the facility.

Read the rest of this entry »