Residential Aged Care Facilities
Page contents: The project | Consultation | Guidelines & Credentialling form | Further information
The project
In 2009, the Department of Human Services undertook a project to extend the Credentialling and defining the scope of clinical practice for medical practitioners in Victorian health services policy to include the credentialling of General Practitioners and other senior doctors who provide services to residents of publicly operated Residential Aged Care Facilities (RACF).
In extending the policy to RACF the department acknowledges:
- RACF have a clinical governance responsibility to provide quality care
- doctors are contracted to the resident and funded by Medicare
- the scope of practice of the medical practitioner and the clinical capacity of the RACF are not as complex as acute health care settings.
Consultation
Dr Bernard Street was engaged by the Statewide Quality Branch and Aged Care Branch of the department to develop guidelines to assist health services with introducing a credentialling process into their RACF. The project included extensive consultation with a large number of stakeholders, and we thank those participants for their valuable input.
A number of themes emerged from these consultations and have been incorporated into the guidelines.
- There is strong support for credentialling processes. Credentialling is part of the acute hospital culture and it is generally accepted that credentialling should apply to doctors attending RACF.
- RACF have a responsibility to ensure residents are receiving appropriate medical care. The facility should discuss the provision of medical care with residents (and their family/carers) and the medical practitioner.
- Credentialling processes should be streamlined to minimise unnecessary paperwork.
- The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) “Silver Book” (Medical Care of Older Persons in Residential Aged Care Facilities - 4th edition, 2006), is held in high regard and provides an excellent basis for collaboration between medical practitioners and RACF.
Guidelines & Credentialling form
The guidelines comprise three key recommendations which outline the minimum standard for the credentialling process in a RACF.
We commend these guidelines to you as they provide an opportunity for organisations to enhance collaboration with medical practitioners and strengthen credentialling processes. The guidelines are for use by health services on an “as needs basis”, but are not mandated.
To assist facilities to document the credentialling of medical practitioners attending their RACF, a form is available for download.
Guidelines for credentialling Medical Practitioners in RACF (28kb, pdf)
Credentialling form for Medical Practitioners in RACF (40kb, MS Word)
Further information
For further information, please contact:
Sarah Harper, Senior Project Officer, Clinical Engagement
Statewide Quality Branch
Telephone: (61 3) 9096 9030 or sarah.harper@dhs.vic.gov.au
Maree Cameron, Manager, Quality Improvement
Aged Care Branch
Telephone: (61 3) 9096 8871 or maree.cameron@dhs.vic.gov.au