15 September 2025
General Practices have a new way to manage and report on visits to patients in aged care with the release of the Puffin tool, developed specifically to support the General Practice in Aged Care Incentive (GPACI).
Puffin is the latest addition to the POLAR data extraction and analysis tool offering an interactive dashboard to help track and report on services offered to residents of aged care homes. It also offers methods for GPs to monitor the status of selected vaccinations for older patients.
Puffin has been developed in direct response to feedback from GPs and practices so they can more easily and effectively implement GPACI as part of their work in providing continuity of care to people living in Residential Aged Care Homes.
GPACI has been part of the Australian Government’s MyMedicare program since 1 July to strengthen and formalise relationships between aged care home residents and their general practitioner or general practice.
POLAR developer Outcome Health has tailored Puffin for GPs and practices to use when providing consultations and care planning for their aged care home patients, in turn, ensuring they meet their reporting requirements alongside providing optimum patient care.
GPs or practices previously cautious about participating in GPACI due to questions around administrative requirements, are welcome to contact our General Practice Team at practicesupport@emphn.org.au to discuss how we can help them. This could include using Puffin or other solutions for assisting with introducing and managing GPACI.
Puffin is now a standard tool when registering with the POLAR platform and is already available for no extra cost to all current users of POLAR. Puffin is currently integrated with Best Practice and Medical Director and will be soon available to ZedMed users.
