How to manage your people and processes through the ACFI to AN-ACC transition

For ACFI Coordinators and finance teams, the future of their role in an AN-ACC world will likely be top of mind.

While the focus on ACFI must remain the priority with at least 12 months of ACFI funding remaining, it is also critical to maintain the skills and capacity in your workforce to enable you to convert the care you deliver into the funding that you require.

We have developed the Mirus ACFI to AN-ACC Pathway (MAAP) to help providers get started on the planning process for the change. You answer 10 questions and we map your answers across five workstreams and three phases to provide your organisation with a holistic framework for how the changes might affect different parts of your business.

In our Finance blog, we explained the key impacts that AN-ACC will have on your funding and provided our tips for what to focus on now. In this blog, we look at the streams of People and Process.

Workstream 2: Supporting your people through the transition

As you transition your people to AN-ACC (Phase 2), you will need to increase the knowledge of the AN-ACC model across the organisation so that everyone is operating together to meet the new requirements. There will also be new skill sets required which will fall broadly into two areas:

• Funding managers will need to manage a process that has changed from an internally “self-assessed” process into preparing for an externally assessed process. These skills are not uncommon as accreditation and quality in general are already externally assessed processes, but this is a significant change from ACFI. There will be a greater focus on preparing and managing the quality of information before a reassessment as well as assessing the timing of the reassessment as well.
• Clinical staff who are responsible for collecting the information that supports your funding will need to be aware that the AN-ACC model uses several assessments that may not be well practised in your facilities today. It will be important that all these assessment tools are well understood so that the correct measurements and information can be documented to support the reassessments.

There will be a continuing need to recruit and manage resources in the new AN-ACC world. This will present new opportunities to HR, Clinical and Funding teams to maintain skill and training levels to support the new model.

Workstream 3: Map your processes to manage external assessments

Providers must continue their focus on ACFI processes to maintain high levels of funding until the change. A drop off in this attention could be detrimental to the major income source for the business. There will be a transition period that will require some planning to implement the new AN-ACC processes. An externally assessed process will need to be managed quite differently for a few reasons:

• The identification and timing of reassessments will require an internal process of analysis, data gathering and approvals leading to the notification of the external assessors.
• The preparation of information for assessments will require quality processes to ensure that the information prepared will support the desired outcome.
• The challenge of reassessment results or correction of errors will require a process for those instances where the result is not in line with the expected one.

As with all new processes, there will be a bedding-in time for both the external assessment process and the matching internal processes. The shadow assessment process has been a trial run for both, and many providers have gathered some insight into what this process will look and feel like.

Mirus Australia has developed a range of information and tools to support the Aged Care industry on its transition to AN-ACC. These include AN-ACC analysis and briefings for management and Boards, AN-ACC training, AN-ACC diagnostics and transition support as well as all the very important ACFI funding services you require until the AN-ACC change over date.

Please contact us if you have any questions or need some support.