Table of Contents
When speaking to our customers across independent living, residential aged care and community care organisations, one of the common messages we hear is that they consider changes to aged care legislation to be one of their biggest challenges.
Alongside limited funding and having enough of the right human resources, these components can collectively present significant success barriers to growth.
Therefore, if growth is going to occur, you need to look for effective means to improve productivity, and in many ways, your aged care software can form part of the answer.
Changes to Aged Care Legislation Can Be Positive
In the age of the Australian government's Living Longer Living Better package of reforms, aged care organisations should ensure that they are operating at their best - not only to be compliant - but to remain competitive, as other operators are likely to be doing the same.
While it can be an overwhelming experience, industry changes like this can often be inherently positive. Change can be a catalyst for best practice across the industry, while providing an opportunity for truly great operators to start to separate themselves from those less committed to excellence.
If you can find ways to remain nimble, amidst operating in an industry that can be inflexible and complicated, then you stand a much better chance of being successful. Yes, that is easier said than done. However, if you identify the manual and resource intensive processes that are restricting your ability to be nimble, then you can work towards removing these constraints and gaining the ability to adapt to market demands.
What You Should Expect from Your Software
This recent period of change has also been important for software vendors. We understand that without the right software, complying with aged care legislation can be an arduous task, so we too have had to work hard and challenge ourselves to ensure that we are genuinely adding value to the aged care industry. We do this through elements such as having a local team that keeps pace with the legislative environment, and ensures that our software is up to date with relevant changes.
Assuming your current software provides the functionality and support you require, then not only are you gaining an ability to increase efficiency, it is also likely to give you peace of mind. For example, if you know that all of the legislative requirements are covered within your software application, you can then focus your time and attention on more strategic matters.
Additionally, knowing that your software vendor has a firm handle on the Australian aged care legislation, you can be confident that you can access the right support when you need it.
This highlights that software functionality is only part of the story. It is the total solution from the vendor as a whole that impact the value you derive from the system. So, while we have been focusing on compliance with aged care legislation in this article, you should also identify the wider scope of requirements that you have for your aged care software and ensure that you are not missing out on any other key functionality.
How to Grow While Facing These Challenges
If you are not yet in a position where your software can facilitate for the requirements we have covered above, then the concept of generating growth and improving profitability can seem comparable to climbing Mount Everest.
The reality is that every organisation is unique and with so many variables that impact your success, there is no one-size-fits-all approach.
Holistically, success is largely derived from having the right people operating with the right resources. In this day and age, that fundamentally means technology as much as anything else. Therefore, if you can already identify a deficiency in your required level of the right staff, or the right technology-then these are the areas that you should give the proper attention.
If you aspire to be a high performing organisation, it is unlikely to be enough to have good people with poor technology, or good technology with the wrong people.
Growth, profitability, and efficiency, are traditionally not synonymous with such combinations as they limit your ability to operate at your full potential.
Another thing we know from speaking to our customers is that they are passionate about helping their organisations grow and be successful. Therefore, if you can free yourself from the time and energy consuming tasks surrounding aged care legislation adherence, then you can focus on the elements that will help you grow your business in the direction you have identified.