Improving the Quality of Care in Aged Care: An Introduction to the interRAI Suite of Systems of Comprehensive Assessment and Care for Australia has been published.
interRAI systems offer a comprehensive solution for health information management across an entire aged care system. An integrated suite of systems supports assessment, risk evaluation, care planning, payment systems and quality monitoring using a single source of data across community, residential and acute care settings. interRAI self-reported systems provide a voice for consumers around their perceptions of care and their quality of life. In this document, we consider the principles of information design and demonstrate how interRAI systems adhere to them. We propose a whole of system approach for Australia that would serve to provide a unified approach to care, integrated across care settings, which simultaneously would meet the needs of consumers, care providers and system administrators. If adopted, Australia would join an international community of interRAI users, offering an ability to consider strengths and weaknesses of our systems, and an opportunity to identify areas for improvement.