Accepting aged care needs assessment referrals and conducting triage

Find out how to receive an assessment referral, triage and schedule an assessment. See the resources you can refer to at the referral and triage steps of the assessment process.

Receiving an assessment referral

Through the My Aged Care assessor portal, the team leader can:

  • review referrals
  • assign referrals
  • unassign referrals
  • reassign referrals
  • assign Support Plan Review requests to aged care needs assessors (assessors) in their team.

Before accepting the referral, team leaders can change the priority of assessment referrals. Team leaders can transfer referrals under certain conditions.

Referrals to assessment organisations must be actioned (accepted or rejected) within 3 calendar days from issue.

For more on managing and accepting referrals, read sections 4.1 and 4.2 of the My Aged Care Assessment Manual.

Conducting triage and scheduling the assessment

Triage happens after accepting a referral and before conducting a home support or comprehensive assessment. Triage is done for every accepted referral and generally take place via a telephone call.

The triage process must be completed by a clinical staff member with the Triage Delegate title who holds the Team Leader role in the My Aged Care assessor portal.

Depending on the client circumstances and referral priority, Triage Delegates should undertake triage with the client and/or the nominated contact within 3 calendar days. Some clients will require faster response times based on level of risk and need.

Triage Delegates must refer to the IAT user guide to ensure competency in the use of the IAT and in the delivery of high-quality triage. Triage Delegates are required to complete all mandatory training before undertaking the triage component of the IAT.

At the conclusion of the triage component of the IAT, Triage Delegates will confirm:

  • eligibility for an assessment
  • assessment type
  • priority of the assessment
  • whether urgent services and/or linking supports are required, if these services were not provided at screening.

Triage Delegates will also be able to assign, unassign and reassign referrals to individual assessors, using information in the Managing referrals for assessment and Support Plan Reviews user guide.

For more on conducting triage, read section 5.2 of the My Aged Care Assessment Manual.

Get support

See more Single Assessment System for aged care resources and support.

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