REMINDER: All providers strongly encouraged to report now on workforce COVID 19 vaccination status

Published 15th June 2021

On 4 June 2021, the Australian Government announced the introduction of a new reporting tool for all approved providers of residential, in-home and community aged care services to report on the COVID-19 vaccination status of their aged care workforce.

All approved providers of aged care services are strongly encouraged to start reporting now.

Weekly reporting of worker vaccination information is at an individual service level.

Reporting is via the My Aged Care portal for approved providers. The new reporting requires approved providers to record de-identified data at a service level on the:

• total number of workers at each aged care service and, of those,
• the number of workers at each service who have received a single dose of a COVID-19 vaccine
• the number of workers at each service who have received all required doses of a COVID-19 vaccine.

The reporting on workforce COVID-19 vaccination status is mandatory starting on 15 June 2021 for all approved providers of residential aged care services.

It will become mandatory for all approved providers of in-home and community aged care services in the coming weeks.

It is currently voluntary for aged care workers to notify their workplace if they have received a COVID-19 vaccination and to show evidence of the vaccination in all states and territories except South Australia.

In South Australia, under the Emergency Management (Residential Aged Care Facilities No 36) (COVID-19) Direction 2021, all staff and volunteers must notify and provide evidence to the operator of a residential aged care facility of any COVID-19 vaccination they have received, if the vaccination was not conducted through a vaccination clinic held at that facility. South Australian residential aged care facilities must maintain records of those vaccinations. South Australian residential aged care providers are still required to report via the My Aged Care Provider Portal.

To access the new reporting tool on the My Aged Care Provider Portal, all approved providers are advised to refer to the updated My Aged Care Provider Portal User Guide: Part 1 Administrative Functions which are available on the health.gov.au website. Section 2.6 (page 84) provides the steps to report on workforce COVID-19 vaccination status.

Fact sheets for residential aged care

• A factsheet is available to provide guidance to providers on how to collect and report information on the number of workers at your service who have received a COVID-19 vaccine.
• A factsheet is available for aged care workers to explain the new reporting tool and why the information is being collected by approved providers. This factsheet is currently being translated into 19 languages and we will notify you when it is available.

Fact sheets for In home and community aged care

• A factsheet is available to provide guidance to providers on how to collect and report information on the number of workers at your service who have received a COVID-19 vaccine.
• A factsheet is available for aged care workers to explain the new reporting tool and why the information is being collected by approved providers. This factsheet is currently being translated into 19 languages and we will notify you when it is available.

Source:
Unknown Author, 2021, Department of Health (https://www.health.gov.au/)