‘Big data’: a cheaper and cohesive plan to improve coordinated care?

The use of “big data” or sharing data between aged care providers, clinicians, other health services and the Government is providing a comprehensive picture of the touchpoints older people have with aged and health services and is now becoming part of the conversation to reform the sector. It may be the answer to more targeted and cost effective supports.

Australia’s first comprehensive nationwide evaluation of older clients’ use of primary health care, the effectiveness of this service in aged care settings and how they can help providers save on costs, follows on from the recommendations the Registry of Senior Australians (ROSA) made to the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety which helped develop their final report released in 2021.

ROSA is looking into the efficiency of primary, preventative and allied health services and how providers can help stop clients from slipping through the cracks by sharing and accessing information across the sector.

Professor Maria Inacio, ROSA and South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute Director, has been examining the relationship of primary health care services with hospitalisations, subsequent health encounters and the length of stay at home or in residential care.

According to the data, 93% of residential aged care clients visit a GP about 25 times a year, but the results of these visits or if they meet their needs are unknown. 

“What we found so far is that while there is an enormous amount of services we have an inkling are helpful – like preventive care services, allied health services and chronic disease management plans – they’re not used by even half of the people that could be receiving them,” said Professor Inacio.

“I want to be able to find the services or best combination of services that an older person can get to do the best they can.”

Care coordination and integration

While the results of the study are in the process of being collated and analysed, it has already shed light on the role that big data can play in coordinating clients’ care, understanding the effectiveness of services and improving the sector overall has been acknowledged.

Professor Inacio said that providers could provide better care for clients if they had access to information from different areas of the aged care and health sector.

“It’s really about coordination of care and integration of care when somebody moves into a residential care facility,” she explained. 

“There are a lot of changes happening but it’s really making sure that they can still see, preferably, their usual GP and helping them access their services so there is some continuing care.

“Providers coordinating those services for older people should happen as soon as they move into care because that seems to be the most critical period. It’s being proactive about managing the conditions that they’re experiencing.”

By compiling the information about residential aged care clients documented by providers, clinicians, the Government and other healthcare services, those involved in the care of these clients can have a better understanding and clearer picture of what services are working and what isn’t.

ROSA has been working to showcase the benefit of integrating the information from these different areas of aged care in order to learn more about specific points of older clients’ journeys and then develop tools that they can use to act on the findings. 

Lowering the burden

Professor Inacio suggested that providers having access to information from other healthcare services such as Medicare, hospitals and ambulance services could be hugely beneficial by preventing care staff from documenting the same information repetitively – making the coordination of care process more timely and streamlined. 

“Most of the big data collections that we work with the information providers have been given to the Government in some form but if there were ways where that information could be brought together in a more efficient and timely manner, and then outlines things that can be done for clients immediately at the point of care,” Professor Inacio said. 

“I know that there is an enormous burden on the providers to collect more and more and more information and I think we need to take stock and vet what’s actually going to be useful and what we can use for other purposes.

“It’s an incredible opportunity to improve the journey of these older people and also to lower the burden on the providers and clinicians of having to repeat and collect the same information over and over by using information a bit more efficiently.”

This project is one of many projects which explore how big data can better inform and life the quality of care.

The results of this study is due to be released at the end of 2024 after analysing the data and outcomes for older people from these aged care services. 

To find out more about the study, visit the ROSA website.