The Australian Health Protection Principal Committee, the Department of Health, consumers and aged care peak bodies have revisited industry codes to support aged care providers make informed decisions regarding visitation during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
The objective of the Code is to provide an agreed industry approach to ensure aged care residents are provided the opportunity to receive visitors during the COVID-19 pandemic, while minimising the risk of its introduction to, or spread within, a residential care home.
Key Items:
- Guidelines for visitation to residential aged care facilities have been revised to provide more proportionate protection to residents.
- Revised guidelines now include a tiered approach outlining how residential aged care providers can respond to COVID-19.
- The new ‘Tiered Escalation’ model allows residential aged care providers to escalate or deescalate their response depending on the COVID-19 situation they are facing.
- Fewer restrictions will be placed on visitors where there is no community transmission (Tier 1), and ramped up if the facility is located within a defined hotspot (Tier 2) or when there is a COVID-19 outbreak in the community (Tier 3).
- The ‘Tiered Escalation’ model should be used to determine and continually assess the level of visitation to aged care residents and additional restrictions required to protect residents against the ongoing risk of COVID-19
Australian Health Protection Principal Committee (AHPPC) et al. Industry code for visiting residential aged care homes during Covid-19 (Updated 20 november 2020). Canberra, Department of Health, 2020, 26 p.
English / Oceania / Australia