AI data leakage in aged care: what leaves when resident records go into ChatGPT or Claude.
Aged care runs on documents about people who cannot easily protect their own information: care plans, progress notes, incident reports, family emails. The Aged Care Act 2024, in force since 1 November 2025, gives every person receiving funded aged care a right to have their personal information protected, and requires registered providers to use and disclose it only for the delivery of their care. This series takes seventeen documents a provider produces every week, marks every item that right covers, and shows where each one goes when the document is pasted into ChatGPT or Claude. Each page ends with the same document on Ermos, inside the service.
The documents, one at a time
Diagnoses, medications, behaviours, mobility and the substitute decision-maker. The whole person, on four pages.
See what leaves → NotesShift handover notesSeveral residents, a refusal of care, a family visit, a concern about a colleague. An evening shift, written in a hurry.
See what leaves → Report or memoThe serious incident reportThe resident, the allegation, the worker, the witnesses and what the service got wrong, in a report due within 24 hours.
See what leaves → EmailThe email to a resident’s familyThe fall, the hospital, the medications, a behaviour change and the conversation nobody wants to have, written to a daughter.
See what leaves → Report or memoThe medication incident reportThe resident, the drug, the dose, the nurse who gave it and why the system let it happen.
See what leaves → LetterThe hospital transfer letterDiagnoses, medications, the advance care directive and the next of kin, compressed onto one page for the ambulance.
See what leaves → AgreementThe resident agreementThe accommodation payment, the daily fees, the means assessment and who signs. A resident’s finances, in the contract that admits them.
See what leaves → EmailThe email to Services AustraliaCentrelink identifiers, the pension, the assets, a disputed valuation and the family story behind it, in an email to government.
See what leaves → LetterThe complaint responseThe allegations, the care, the staff involved, the investigation and the admissions, in a letter the Commission may read next.
See what leaves → RecordThe behaviour support planThe triggers, the psychotropic, who consented, what was tried first. The record the law requires, about the most vulnerable resident in the home.
See what leaves → SpreadsheetThe roster and agency workbookStaff and agency names, leave, screening dates, a worker stood down and which resident needs which staff member. A week on Wattle wing.
See what leaves → SpreadsheetThe fees and refunds registerAccommodation payments, daily fees, refunds owing to estates, a bank account and who may be phoned. A finance register, one row per resident.
See what leaves → RecordThe palliative care planPrognosis, treatment limits, symptom plan, faith, a disagreement between her children and funeral wishes. The most private page in the file.
See what leaves → FormThe falls risk assessmentThe fall, the medicines, how she thinks and moves, what is in place and a risk score. A post-fall form, one resident.
See what leaves → FormThe restrictive practice consent formThe medicine, the behaviours, what was tried first, the risks explained, a guardian’s own words and who had the authority to consent.
See what leaves → TranscriptThe family meeting transcriptInjuries, an allegation against a named worker, an earlier warning, a family’s money and a threat to complain, in the speakers’ own words.
See what leaves → Text or chat messageThe staff group chat handoverThree days of handover: an allegation against a colleague, injury photos, a dying resident, a shared login and an open police matter.
See what leaves →How the leakage happens
The mechanism is the same for every document. The whole text is transmitted to the provider’s servers. On personal plans the user cannot choose where it is stored or processed, and for the major providers that has generally meant outside Australia. On consumer tiers it can be retained and used to train future models. The provider’s staff and systems can reach it under the provider’s own policies. Once sent, the service no longer controls it. Our on-premise vs cloud comparison sets out the four ways to run AI and where each one puts your documents.
The obligations in play
Each marked item on these pages links to the guide that covers its obligation:
The same documents on Ermos
Ermos Dominion drafts and searches on a unit in your office, so the documents never leave it. Ermos Edge keeps your documents on your own instance in an Australian data centre and sends only permitted excerpts, per question, to a named Australian provider. Every page in this series ends with both, item by item.
Common questions
Can aged care providers use ChatGPT or Claude with resident information?
Do ChatGPT and Claude train on what staff paste in?
Do business plans such as ChatGPT Business or Claude Team solve the problem for aged care providers?
What is the safest way for an aged care service to use AI with resident documents?
What does the Aged Care Act 2024 say about residents' information?
Is a care plan health information under the Privacy Act?
Does this apply to home care as well as residential?
See Dominion answering from your own documents.
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