Predicting resident deterioration and acute care needs in aged care

Opportunity

Equip aged care providers to identify deteriorating residents living in their care, so that appropriate care and resources can be provisioned.

Project objective

This project will leverage data from Telstra Health’s residential aged care system to develop algorithms to aid aged care professionals.

With an ageing population, there are an increasing number of elderly Australians receiving care within a residential facility. These residents often require acute care, but most facilities don’t have sufficient capacity to provide it.

In addition, Australian aged care workers lack the medical training and expertise to be able to accurately identify deteriorating residents. This is a significant challenge for many care providers, as residential aged care facilities have been increasingly de-medicalised over recent decades.

This work aims to help solve some of these issues by better equipping aged care facilities to look after vulnerable residents within their care. In addition, this research will also help facilities better distribute their clinical resources.