IT Support for Aged Care and Retirement Villages
Exodesk provides aged care IT support for rest homes, aged residential care providers and retirement villages. We help providers manage staff access, shared devices, site networks and recovery arrangements, with responsibilities agreed around the systems each site uses.
We start with the work your staff need to do and the systems they depend on. Clinical software, medication systems and nurse call have specialist suppliers, so we agree who handles each part, how faults are escalated and what support is available during your operating hours.
Supporting New Zealand businesses since 1989
What does aged care IT support cover?
Aged care IT support looks after the technology behind residential care and retirement-village operations: staff accounts and shared devices, site networks for care, administration, residents and visitors, agreed recovery and security, and coordination with the software and nurse-call vendors each site relies on.
Aged care is part of healthcare, and our healthcare IT service covers clinical practices and their office workflows. Residential care adds shift-based access, shared devices, residents living on site and buildings spread across a campus. Independent-living village services and clinical residential care are scoped separately, because they use different systems and carry different obligations.
Exodesk has supported New Zealand businesses since 1989. Today, our Christchurch and Dunedin teams support businesses nationwide, with support hours, after-hours arrangements and site attendance agreed for each provider.
IT support around the work of your care team
The service is scoped around the people on shift, the devices they share and the systems a site depends on.
Staff access and devices
Named accounts, role-based permissions and managed shared devices, with starters, agency staff and leavers handled through an agreed process.
Site-wide connectivity
Coverage and access rules across wings, offices, communal areas and units, designed around the different groups using the site.
Recovery and vendor liaison
Agreed protection for the systems in scope, recovery targets with named owners, and coordination with specialist suppliers.
Aged care IT support sits within the arrangement described on our managed IT services page, with sector-specific responsibilities recorded in the proposal. Site projects, equipment and clinical software licences are quoted separately.
Networks for the site and its different users
We review the areas needing coverage, the devices using them and demand during busy periods. Care operations, administration, residents and visitors may share physical infrastructure, but they need different access rules and support arrangements rather than one flat network.
Resident connectivity is a permanent service with its own support questions, unlike short-stay visitor access, which our guest WiFi guide covers. Internet in independent-living units is scoped separately where it is part of the project, so the support expectations are clear before anything is installed.
The design accounts for the existing network, cabling, power and internet service. Checks cover the relevant care applications and movement between access points, with equipment and vendor limits recorded. Traffic limits help manage shared capacity, but they do not make every clinical application immune to a network fault.
Staff access and shared devices
Named accounts and role-based permissions help staff reach the systems they need while keeping actions attributable to the person who took them.
- Authorised requests. Starters, agency staff, role changes and leavers are requested and approved through an agreed process, with lead times set for short-notice shifts.
- Confirmed engagement dates. Access is set up and closed against the confirmed engagement, not each roster boundary, and checked across the systems in scope, including active sessions and vendor applications.
- No shared logins. Each person signs in as themselves, so the record can show who documented what.
- Managed shared devices. Trolley laptops and wing tablets are enrolled, updated and protected through mobile device management, with an owner for each device.
- Lost or offline devices. The plan covers what happens when a device goes missing or cannot connect, with remote lock and wipe behaviour confirmed for the devices in use.
Rostering and time-and-attendance software is a separate decision from aged care IT support, covered in our rostering software guide.
Recovery and support with named owners
We identify which systems Exodesk covers, which depend on a software vendor and what can be restored or exported. A general backup service cannot automatically restore every vendor-hosted clinical application, so vendor recovery terms, export options and any separate protection are confirmed for each one.
The agreed plan states recovery targets, data-loss tolerances, test arrangements and escalation contacts. Those targets have dependencies and are measured against tests of representative workflows, run with clinical approval. The plan covers power, connectivity and vendor service failures as well as a server restore, and our backup as a service handles protection for the systems in scope.
Your clinical leaders own the care procedures used during an outage, including escalation and how records are reconciled afterwards. We coordinate the IT work with those procedures and the relevant vendors. Support hours, after-hours options where agreed and on-site attendance are set out in the aged care IT support agreement.
How aged care IT support is set up
Each aged care IT support engagement starts with the site and the systems a shift depends on, and changes are planned around care delivery.
Review the site and systems
Record locations, staffing patterns, devices, networks, care and business systems, vendors and the current recovery arrangements.
Agree responsibilities
Confirm what Exodesk manages, what each vendor handles, priority checks, support hours, escalation contacts and separately quoted work.
Plan changes around care
Schedule network, device and account changes with the provider to limit disruption to care delivery, with the change window, fallback and clinical escalation agreed before work starts.
Test and hand over
Test access, coverage, recovery steps and escalation with the relevant staff, then hand over contacts, documentation and the support arrangement.
Access controls, device protection and agreed logging support your privacy arrangements, while your organisation decides lawful access, collection and disclosure. Since 1 May 2026, Rule 3A of the Health Information Privacy Code applies when health information is collected from someone other than the resident or their representative. Reasonable steps must then be taken to notify them as soon as reasonably practicable after collection, unless an exception applies. Collection from a representative falls under Rule 3.
Family relationships do not create automatic rights to a resident’s record. The Privacy Commissioner’s guidance on disclosure to family points to consent, a nominated representative or a specific exception. We work with your nominated privacy and clinical contacts on the technology within scope.
What affects the cost of aged care IT support?
Cost depends on users, shared devices, sites, systems, support hours, security and recovery scope. The quote separates ongoing IT support from clinical software licences, equipment and site projects.
- Ongoing support. Users, devices, locations and support hours within the agreed scope, including any after-hours arrangement.
- Site projects. Network surveys, cabling, access points and device rollouts, quoted as one-off work.
- Licences and equipment. Clinical and business software licences and hardware, shown separately from Exodesk’s work.
- Terms. Inclusions, exclusions, specialist supplier work, travel and minimum terms, set out in the quote.
Tell us your locations, systems, staffing patterns and immediate concerns, and we can establish the scope of your aged care IT support before discussing a site visit.
Aged care IT support questions
What does aged care IT support cover?
It covers the agreed technology behind the operation, such as staff access, devices, connectivity, security and recovery. The proposal identifies what Exodesk manages, what software vendors manage and who handles faults involving more than one supplier.
Do you support care software and nurse-call systems?
We agree the infrastructure and access work around each system with the provider and the relevant vendor. Clinical functions, assessments, medication rules and specialist nurse-call work remain with their authorised owners unless a specific responsibility is agreed. A general IT plan does not cover every product function.
What happens if a care system is unavailable overnight?
Staff follow the approved downtime and escalation procedures set by the care provider. The IT agreement identifies contacts, support hours, vendor responsibilities and recovery steps. Clinical urgency determines escalation, and no fixed outage period makes a system failure safe.
Can you back up a vendor-hosted care system?
That depends on the product and the access or export features it offers. Confirm the protection and recovery terms offered by the vendor and what separate backup is technically supported. The plan identifies any gap rather than assuming a general backup service covers every clinical application.
How do you manage casual and agency staff access?
We use named accounts, approved roles and confirmed engagement dates. Request lead times, authorisation and closure checks are agreed across the systems involved. Extensions are reviewed and access is removed promptly when it is no longer needed, without relying on the roster alone.
How should resident and visitor WiFi work?
Keep access to care systems restricted and plan resident and visitor services around their different needs. Coverage, busy-period demand, device-to-device access and support ownership all matter. Test the configuration and roaming rather than assuming a separate network name provides isolation.
How does the Health Information Privacy Code affect IT?
The provider needs appropriate controls for health information, and Exodesk can support the agreed access, device, security and recovery controls. The privacy lead for the provider owns collection and disclosure decisions, including Rule 3A notification where it applies. Technology support alone does not establish compliance.
Does every retirement village use interRAI?
InterRAI became mandatory in aged residential care in July 2015. That is not a requirement for every independent-living village operation. Establish the care services provided and the applicable requirements before specifying systems or support.
What does aged care IT support cost?
Cost depends on users, shared devices, sites, systems, support hours, security and recovery scope. Clinical software licences and infrastructure projects may be separate. Ask for inclusions, recurring charges, one-off work and any minimum terms before comparing proposals.
Where does Exodesk provide aged care IT support?
Exodesk has supported New Zealand businesses since 1989, and our Christchurch and Dunedin teams support businesses nationwide. The proposal confirms delivery, travel, site attendance and support arrangements for your location. Tell us where the sites are and what the service needs to cover.
Discuss your aged care IT
Tell us your sites, staff numbers and shift patterns, the care and business systems you use, and what is causing problems now. Please leave resident information and passwords out of your enquiry.
Talk to us about aged care IT support
Tell us your organisation name, sites, staff numbers and main systems, and we will be in touch to arrange a time that suits.
Prefer to talk?
Christchurch
Level 1, 85 Riccarton Road
Christchurch 8011
03 343 3124
Dunedin
Level 3, Bartons Building
2 Stafford Street, Dunedin 9016
03 479 2941