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Guiding Aged Care Towards Proactive, Personalised Resident Care

In aged care, meeting the evolving needs of residents requires more than responding when issues arise. At Hercules Health, the focus is on proactive care, empowering aged care providers to anticipate needs, personalise support, and deliver better outcomes for every resident.

Moving from Reactive to Proactive Care
Traditional models of care often rely on reacting to incidents or changes after they occur. Hercules Health supports aged care clients to shift this approach by using live, real time data to continuously review residents’ wellbeing. This allows care teams to identify early indicators of change and intervene sooner, improving both resident safety and quality of life.

Personalised Care at the Individual Level
Every resident is unique. Hercules Health enables providers to observe trends and patterns at an individual resident level, supporting personalised care planning that adapts as needs change. By analysing data over time, care teams gain deeper insight into each resident’s physical, emotional, and clinical requirements, ensuring care is truly person‑centred.

Visibility Across the Entire Site
While individual care is critical, aged care organisations also need a clear view across their entire facility. Hercules Health delivers site-wide visibility, helping leaders and clinical teams understand broader patterns, risks, and opportunities for improvement. This balanced view supports better decision-making, resource allocation, and compliance with care standards.

Changing the Way Aged Care Is Delivered
By combining live data, predictive insights, and clear visibility, Hercules Health is helping aged care providers transform how care is delivered. The result is a more responsive, informed, and compassionate model of care, one that supports staff, reassures families, and most importantly, enhances the wellbeing of residents.

Through proactive guidance and intelligent insights, Hercules Health partners with aged care clients to meet today’s needs while preparing for tomorrow’s challenges.

Aldwins House (Promisia Healthcare) Facility Manager Debbie, keeping aware of trends in real time through Hercules Health Dashboards.
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Privacy Officer role has changed… but is that reflected in practice?

One of the areas of administration ripe for review and development is the role of Privacy Officer / Privacy Co-ordinator. The privacy monitoring needs to include data privacy (storage, access etc) which in itself is a complex topic. 

Traditionally privacy has related to clinical documents in hard-copy form, and auditory and physical privacy, but now digital security is an additional and complex area of risk mitigation and monitoring. The education or skill set required to undertake this role also may need enhancing to meet modern methods of record keeping.

What does good look like? Is adequate ever really adequate?? 

Health Information is the most sought after by hackers for potential identity theft etc. You wouldn’t leave your house in the morning with the doors and windows wide open for easy access by anyone! Have the Users of your systems been given the relevant and appropriate user permissions to ensure access to only data they have a legal right to access? Have passwords been exposed to unauthorized users? Have access codes been deactivated for those on leave or those who no longer work for your organization?

Did you logout? Why would you leave your digital device accessible to others while you’ve left it logged in. Anyone following on entering information legitimately or not, could be entered under your login making you responsible for their notation.

Are your team members using AI to develop care plans? We are aware this is becoming common practice. I can’t help but wonder what private resident information may have been entered into an open source AI to get the person centered care plan written by AI? Have residents been made aware of and consented to your storage of their data in digital systems? 

Are your team writing the progress notes for their shift after they’ve gone home saying they didn’t have time to do ut at work? Have you instigated Multi-factor Authentication for added security?

We suggest developing the security / privacy role to look at where data is stored, who has access to it, is it held within an organisations own tenancy (ring-fenced for their eyes only), or travel out of where the data is stored on third party systems. Have you updated your education on meeting your Privacy Act and Health Information Privacy Code 2020 requirements? What are your internal audits showing? What is being reported to your clinical governance and management teams with regard to meeting your obligations to those associated with your service?

A few things to think about before you’re the subject of a privacy related complaint…

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Data informed change

Debbie, prioritizing action based on data

I had the pleasure of discussion with two senior team members at an Aged Care service yesterday about the desire for multiple change. Their change program had been making good progress but then stalled. The halt seemed to relate to the belief that all education had to happen, classroom style before a change could be commenced. 

Instead of applying a vast amount of theory, waiting to confirm it was all understood, I suggested looking at the data. Aged Care lack the luxury of time to fully educate while clinical risk is waiting to be addressed, growing by the day.

When looking at data, where is your highest risk? Is it falls? Is it unintentional weight loss? Is it dehydration? Is it behaviors of concern? Is it pressure injuries? With so many options for action, tracking and visibility via live dashboards will help drive meaningful action and support prioritizing highest risk first.

Targeted education on 2 or 3 things at most supports progress being achieved quickly. One suggestion is educate as you go. Keep viewing the related data to determine success of actions. Study, act, review is a shortened version of the well known quality repeating cycle of Plan, do, check, act..

If we work on 50 things that all need improvement simultaneously, the chance of progress and rapid risk mitigation is diluted.

Debbie, the Facility Manager from another site knows this. At Aldwins House, Promisia Group, they are making great use of the Hercules Health LIVE time dashboards to closely monitor clinical data to drive excellence in care.

With around 660 aged care services in New Zealand, every site operates differently but one thing remains true, when they use data to inform care, they reduce risk and improve health outcomes for their residents. Hercules Health dashboards are bespoke to reflect each site and their particular needs.

#agedcare #dha #digitalhealth

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Aldwins House, Promisia Group was the lucky recipient.

It was our pleasure to work with Robin Burgess, representing Ergotron NZ and Australia, to be able to make this deluxe trolley available as a hat draw prize.  Debbie the Facility Manager at Aldwins House in Christchurch said it’s put a smile on the face of their doctor as she is now able to use it for her rounds, updating notes in Hercules Health.

Debbie is also now able to view live status dashboards through Hercules Health on the move. Data visibility in live time  for all key aspects of the service, means she and her team are able to view these for alerts and care prompts whether in a meeting room, or in discussion with residents and their family members for care plan review meetings.

Thanks again to Ergotron for partnering with us to make this possible.

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Sometimes change is necessary

It’s very easy to stick with the tried and true, those things we’ve done for so long we’re comfortable with them so we keep on keeping on.

My keyboard with the letters worn off the keys is a good reminder that while I touch type and don’t need to see the letters, if someone else had to step into my role and office space, this might not help their productivity.

If we want everything to continue operating at optimal pace with no interruption to service, it’s always good to make sure our tools work for everyone. It’s also imperative there are succession plans so no function within the business is reliant on one person.

Keeping knowledge in your head doesn’t help others and is more likely to reflect a closed mindset rather than an open one.  The world of health tech is moving very quickly which doesn’t request, it requires people to collaborate and progress to continuously better ways of doing things with the latest tools available.

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Diabetic diets – clinically appropriate in aged care or not?

When balancing the clinical needs, requests and preferences of each resident in-conjunction with their right to choose, a number of factors need to be taken into consideration.  We all recognise that theory and practice can change over time so when I asked Liz Beaglehole (Registered Dietitian) her professional view on this topic is, she offered the following:

The recommendation for older adults with diabetes in aged care facilities with stable diabetes is to provide an unrestrictive diet as much as possible. The notion of a ‘diabetic diet’ is outdated due to the increased risk of hypos and unwanted weight loss.

This is very individual however, a frail 80 year old woman with diabetes will likely have no diet restrictions however an obese 70 year old who may be otherwise stable would benefit from a more restrictive diet.  Advice from a dietitian for individuals is recommended.

Overall, guidance from the resident about their wants is probably what determines the diet provided. This may be in accordance with recommendations or not.

Generally, the medications should be fitted to the usual eating pattern of the resident.  In aged care facilities there are regular meals and generally balanced carbohydrates over the main meals (assuming good food intake) so usually this is fine.  If someone has a reduced food intake, and is on insulin then a unrestrictive diet would be best.

For my menu planning I tend not to plan any special diabetic options on the cycle menus.  I may include a low fat / low sugar dessert option if sites request, but generally my philosophy for aged care is not to restrict foods!

Liz is involved with a PEN (practiced based evidence in nutrition) review of the question ‘Do institutionalized, older adults (65 years of age or older) who closely follow a diet prescription have better control of their chronic disease (e.g. diabetes) than those who do not?‘ This is due by the end of March so further practice updates from this review may be available then.  Liz noted that generally the evidence suggests there are no benefits with a prescriptive diet vs a more liberal one.

This article was kindly contributed by Liz Beaglehole NZRD (Canterbury Dietitians).

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Aged Care Managers and Nurses Study Days

April 12th and 13th, 2018 – Christchurch

Presenters: 

Gillian Robinson – Bachelor of Nursing, Registered Nurse, Lead Auditor, Management Consultant, Author
Liz Beaglehole – New Zealand Registered Dietitian, with a Post-graduate Diploma in Dietetics (with distinction), Canterbury Dietitians.
Ben Harris – Medical Laboratory Scientist, Honorary Lecturer for the University of Otago

Incorporating clinical and management topics, these study days are designed to provide the opportunity to learn together and gain a greater understanding of each others roles and aged care industry expectations. Gain your professional development hours by joining your colleagues for two fun days of learning.

Topics include:

Day One – Thursday 12th April – 9.00am to 4.30pm

  • Age-related Residential Care (ARRC) – understanding the DHB funding service specifications
  • Quality and Risk Management – striving and achieving excellence
  • Clinical Leadership – how to lead the clinical team effectively
  • Clinical Documentation – What, when, how and why to document
  • Clinical Assessment and Care Planning – bringing it all together for better resident outcomes
  • Microbiome – why understanding this is so important
  • Multi-Drug Resistant Organisms (MDROs) – the current and pending impact

Day two – Friday 13th April (9.00am start, finish approximately 1.00pm) 

  • Urinary Tract Infections – to dip or not?!
  • Norovirus and Influenza – latest updates
  • Food Safety – Food Safety and Nutrition
  • Question and Answer session

Attendees will supply their own lunch.  Morning and afternoon tea will be provided.

Venue: Chapel Street Centre, Cnr Harewood Road and Chapel Street, Papanui, Christchurch.   (Easy access from the airport)

Numbers will be limited so register today.

To register – email gill@agedcarecompliance.com and supply the names and designations of each staff member attending, and confirmation if they will be attending day one or day two or both days?

The attendance fee for this content filled education is $155 (plus GST per attendee to cover both days), $85.00 plus GST per attendee to cover either day one or day  two.

We will respond with confirmation of registrations. Certificates of attendance will be provided.

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