Telstra Health launches care insights for aged care

Telstra Health has launched Care Insights for aged care providers, combining clinical and operational data in a single reporting environment.

The suite includes more than 20 new and updated analytics functions designed to give providers one view across resident care, medication, incidents, quality measures and organisational performance. It is available to eligible customers through Telstra Health's Clinical Manager system.

The launch comes as aged care providers face tighter quality standards, greater scrutiny through Star Ratings, and pressure to improve oversight across multiple sites. Many organisations still rely on information spread across separate systems and reporting tools, making it harder to monitor risk and performance, according to Telstra Health.

Key features include Organisation 360, Resident 360 and Resident Events. Telstra Health says these tools are designed to bring together compliance, clinical and operational data; provide a consolidated view of individual residents; and combine information on incidents, falls, wounds, assessments and follow-up activity.

The company has also added incident and wound reporting functions to improve visibility into clinical risk and support quality improvement and compliance work.

One customer using the product is Regents Garden Group, which says the system has already reduced reporting time by about 30% a week.

"I would like to thank the Telstra Health team for delivering reporting tools that make a real difference to our clinical and quality teams. The new reports make it much easier to access and review clinical data, already reducing reporting time by around 30% per week, while providing a clearer overall picture of resident care and quality indicators. With better visibility, our teams can make more informed decisions, identify areas requiring attention, and spend more time focused on delivering safe, high-quality care for residents," said Alina Zhang, Chief Operating Officer, Regents Garden Group.

Sector pressure

The aged care sector is dealing with rising demand, workforce shortages, funding pressure and increasingly complex resident needs. Timely access to connected data is becoming more important as providers adapt to strengthened Aged Care Quality Standards and broader reform, Telstra Health says.

Care Insights is built on structured data aligned to the strengthened standards, with the aim of helping providers monitor quality indicators, support Star Ratings performance, improve compliance reporting and track operational outcomes.

Telstra Health says the suite extends work from its Assessment Framework, developed with 23 aged care organisations and informed by more than 850 hours of research. The framework is intended to support more consistent assessment and reporting across the sector.

Dr Monica Trujillo, Chief Health and Risk Officer at Telstra Health, outlined the rationale for the product.

"Aged care providers are being asked to make faster, better decisions in a complex and evolving regulatory environment using information that is often spread across multiple systems. Our focus with Care Insights is to bring critical care and operational data together, so leaders and care teams can see what is happening, act earlier and make decisions with greater confidence, supporting better, more responsive care for the people they serve," said Trujillo.

Data model

Telstra Health says its model differs from reporting approaches that use multiple third-party systems because it combines clinical, medication and operational information in one environment. This can help providers build a fuller picture of resident wellbeing, organisational risk and service performance, according to the company.

Caroline Parker, Clinical Adoption Specialist for Clinical Innovation and Effectiveness at Telstra Health, said the company sees analytics as part of routine care oversight rather than only a retrospective reporting tool.

"Analytics should do more than report on past events. Providers need timely, meaningful insights that help care teams identify risks earlier, support better care delivery and demonstrate quality care. By creating a single source of truth across clinical, operational and medication data, we're helping providers spend less time compiling reports and more time focusing on what matters most - providing the best possible residential care," said Parker.

Telstra Health also linked the launch to longer-term work on artificial intelligence tools, including AI-assisted resident summaries, natural language analytics and predictive insights. It says the new analytics functions create a data foundation for those tools by standardising assessments and reporting at the point information is captured.

"High-quality analytics starts with high-quality data. By aligning assessments with the strengthened Quality Standards and capturing clinically meaningful information from the outset, we're helping providers deliver more consistent, data-informed care while building the foundation for the next generation of AI-powered aged care," said Parker.