COVID-19: What has been the impact for aged care providers?

LASA survey finds providers have been boosting support.

Australia has successfully achieved a national consensus on policies in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic, with the age services industry responding to this rapidly changing policy environment with agility and vigilance.

Less than 0.03 per cent of all confirmed COVID-19 cases in Australia have occurred within aged care as at the end of May 2020, following the ‘flattening of the curve’—an impressive result that highlights the passion and dedication of our aged care leaders and workforce.

LASA’s Aged Care COVID-19 Survey at the end of April 2020, which was completed by over 150 residential and home care providers, offers more insights into how the age services industry has responded to this unprecedented situation—and the challenges it has faced— across operations, workforce and financial domains.

Operations

Most residential aged care providers have the support of residents and their families in implementing visitation restrictions. Among 864 residents, families or friends and facility employees, 90 per cent agreed with their provider’s response to COVID-19. Consequently, not much has changed for many residents apart from physical distancing. Restricted visits by families and friends has been the main challenge in keeping COVID-19 out of aged care. Home care providers have changed the way they deliver essential services in response to COVID-19, communicating with clients about these changes to provide reassurance about their infection control plans. Some 90 per cent increased regular telephone contacts, 84 per cent implemented special grocery shopping, 75 per cent put in place video monitoring and social support, and 41 per cent are working digitally to connect friends and family. Access to personal pr otective equipment (PPE) across respondents has been a significant issue with many providers reportedly having deficient stocks for the delivery of COVID-19 related care during their early stage response. (This is why LASA set up a PPE portal.) Workforce • There has been a strong commitment to staff infection control training and their monitoring of care-recipient wellbeing. There has also been regular screening of staff for

COVID-19 risk factors prior to commencing work shifts. • Nearly half of respondents have made rostering changes to reduce cross transmission risks, with most residential aged care providers reducing the number of services in which staff work. Home care providers have not seen this reduction.

Staff continue to work across services to retain sufficient income while encountering increasing service cancellations.

Providers report that up to 30 per cent of home care clients cancelled services during the COVID-19 pandemic. • Over half of r espondents have had a 30 per cent increase in staff leave days. • Nearly half of r espondents have seen no change in staff and management morale, with 25 per cent reporting it has improved and the rest saying it has declined. Residential aged care management morale has declined more so than home care management morale.

Finance

Most respondents have incurred a substantial increase in unplanned expenditure. This has predominantly included additional costs associated with the procurement of PPE, cleaning costs and COVID-19 response coordination costs. Reduced revenue and increased staff hours have also affected the financial performance of providers, but to a lesser extent. Nearly half of residential care respondents have had a downturn in their Refundable Accommodation Deposit funding pool over the March-April period and this decline will need to be monitored. The majority of respondents have not yet deferred planned investment due to COVID-19, however this will be under review during this period of significant economic unrest.

It is expected that many of these incidental impacts will continue to echo through our industry for some time to come. It will be interesting to see how they unfold as we move forward as an industry, maintaining vigilance in infection control while juggling significant financial pressures in delivering both clinical and lifestyle services to older Australians. ■ Troy Speirs is Senior Policy Advisor, Leading Age Services Australia.