The Aged Care industry has been put under the microscope in recent years, and the findings point to the need to create robust processes to ensure the quality of care to all customers using any form of Aged Care services. One of the paths which many organizations are going down to provide quality care is through harnessing the power of software solutions. The ability and benefits of utilizing software are compelling: improve processes and productivity, deliver better customer and employee experiences, manage risks, and control costs.

It would be easy to assume the proliferation of digital technology has made this process of pairing business-focused philosophies with software development models par for the course – but some industries have been quicker on the uptake than others. The Aged Care industry, for example, has traditionally been behind the curve when it comes to adopting digital technologies that streamline processes, reduce the burden of paperwork, and ultimately improve the quality of care.

The industry began to embrace digital technology in 2005 when the Commonwealth introduced infrastructure funding for upgrades to Aged Care facilities. This encouraged many facilities to replace antiquated paper-based processes with software systems that delivered efficient and accurate data management. Since then, however, the adoption and upgrade of technology has moved slower than other industries – until now.

This continued reliance on inefficient and unreliable methods of managing vital information can have a detrimental impact on Aged Care customers, whose right to access safe and quality care and to live without abuse or neglect is compromised – and the consequences can be severe: from a lack of visibility on incident investigation, actions and follow-up to a siloed approach between governance and other systems. Increasingly aware of this, the Australian Government intervened.