Apollo Care and IT Integrity have revolutionised frontline care by consolidating workforce devices and technology access into a powerful ‘one-tool’ ecosystem.
Apollo Care and IT Integrity’s ‘one-tool’ ecosystem efficiently captures and presents vast amounts of information to workers, providing the right access, to the right person, at the right time.
Having a technology ecosystem that is seamlessly operating beside the frontline team benefits both residents and staff, creating time for quality focus and deeper social connections in the care community.
Understanding the Problem
IT Integrity partner with Apollo Care focused on enabling the organisation through leveraging technology effectively. For the frontline team, this started with developing a detailed set of requirements based on the tools, systems, and processes that they relied upon in their roles. The complexity for the team was immediately clear and relied on them interacting with multiple physical devices, multiple applications, all through isolated processes.
The Challenge
Based on this challenge, IT Integrity were able to develop a picture of how to enable the frontline team:
- Consolidating physical tools for immediate access at the point-of-care.
- Simplification of access across multiple systems, securely.
- Efficient dissemination of data, both in presentation and capture to inform care.
- Rapid communication within the care community and team.
The primary focus was to select a platform with ample computing power to support the essential services. A trial of devices that met the specifications was conducted with the team ultimately selecting a ruggedised Samsung device. Following this selection, IT Integrity evaluated additional tools for consolidation, leading to the introduction of Verkada to the ecosystem for its innovative capabilities.
Laying a good foundation
In this case study it is imperative to acknowledge the foundational technology groundwork carried out by IT Integrity for Apollo Care. IT Integrity have designed and built a class leading converged network technology foundation with high availability architecture with reliability suitable for the proposed critical business systems. This includes a voice grade wireless network for services such as nurse call and real time location services.
IT Integrity have also implemented its modern workforce solution based on care service specific frameworks the team has architected for the sector. These frameworks leverage Microsoft EntraID, aligning attributes and role-based permissions to the organisational chart to create a single point of administration for access to systems and data. This framework enabled a single/unified login experience for the frontline team with best practice identity controls across the entire technology landscape.
We now had one device, with one login, and began to integrate systems and tools – looking for innovation across the identified use cases.
“Every frontline worker carries a ruggedised mobile device offering a consolidated set of frontline tools… tasks are performed with the resident at the point of care.”
— Residential Service Manager Jinto George
Implementation
The ‘one-tool’ ecosystem sought to consolidate physical tools, logins and processes, streamlining point-in-time data entry, and enhancing efficiency, including:
Physical Tools
- DECT phones
- Nurse call pendants & common areaannunciators
- Nurse stations and/or laptops
- Real-time location service tokens/wearables
- Paper-based notes and record keeping
- Access control (keys/swipe cards) including intercom, gate, door, drug, and supply rooms.
Digital Tools
- Clinical System – care notes and care plan access
- Medication management
- Quality Management System policies and procedures
- Age-Rite (Apollo Care’s wellbeing and productivity program)
- Dementia wondering and person of interest alerts
- Direct worker/resident calls via bedside speakerphones
- Organisational Collaboration / Microsoft Teams
- Backoffice systems – HR, Finance, etc.
Understanding this mix of technologies and their purpose in enabling the model of care, IT Integrity and Apollo Care were able to build a comprehensive ‘one-tool’ ecosystem. With all frontline tools integrated workflow innovations such as live CCTV viewing on the device of intercom access requests, and person of interest alerts, without leaving the point of care, have been enabled.
Because of the benefits that the ‘one-tool’ ecosystem was delivering to the team, the training and adoption was accelerated. It delivers true efficiency, which fostered change momentum from within the business and saw the one-tool ecosystem readily embraced.
Results in action – Apollo Care’s PresCare Groundwater Lodge, Queensland
Groundwater Lodge has piloted the ecosystem since mid-2023, with impressive results across staff and organisational performance, along with improved resident outcomes.
“Every frontline worker carries a ruggedised mobile device offering a consolidated set of frontline tools connecting them to clinical and quality systems, technology platforms, team members and residents,” explains Residential Service Manager Jinto George.
“Workers have immediate access to every resident’s care plan – from personal lifestyle preferences to behaviour and medical charts – and tasks are performed with the resident at the point of care.”
“The device and technology are easy and convenient and improve efficiency and accuracy. This enables workers to spend more ‘soft skill’ time with residents, which we know increases quality of life for residents and job satisfaction for workers.”
The Outcome
The one-tool mobile device ecosystem empowers frontline workers to deliver optimised care while minimising administrative burdens. From a performance perspective, it is enabling the capture of more data than before which directly impacts care revenue and available funding. The ecosystems administrative innovation and ease of use expedite regular and agency staff onboarding and, once onboard, leads to improved job satisfaction and worker retention.
Use Cases | Benefits |
|---|---|
Dementia wondering alerts | Integrated Live CCTV feed with RTLS alerts for Person of Interest & Dementia wandering to the device |
After hours building access control | EntraID Integrated access control for gates, doors, drug and supply rooms with full auditability and management from the device |
Nurse call alert prioritisation for rapid response | EntraID and location-based nurse call alerts – right person, right time, right place |
Agency and extended care support accessibility
| Agency staff workflow for rapid onboarding, provision of unique credentials, and access to relevant information for the continuity of care quality and preference management |
Care plan review and updates at the point of care | Dynamic dissemination of information based on role, care requirements, and resident preferences |
Efficient and easy to use | One password ecosystem accelerating data capture at the point of care |
Care and support communication and connectivity
| Unparalleled care community communication with integration MS Teams for internal, PBX for external telephony |
Access to policies and procedures to inform and guide frontline team | Live access to policies and procedures at the point of care through integrated MS Teams Quality Management System (QMS) |
