Aged Care Insite Issue 93 | February-March 2016 | Seite 19

industry & policy

‘Cautious creativity’
Care provider maintains
cost-effective quality by innovating
through extensive testing and trials.
By Jane Pickering

A

ustralians are living longer and have
higher expectations for the quality
of life in their older years. At the
same time, consumer-directed care has put
them in the driver’s seat to control their care
services. Increasingly selective customers,
coupled with industry deregulation
attracting new providers, has required
Eldercare to become not only efficient but
also innovative in all areas of our business
to maintain our strong position in the South
Australian marketplace.
With costs of care rising more quickly
than funding income, it’s almost impossible
to remain profitable doing things the ‘same
way they’ve always been done’. Knowing
this, we’ve spent the last few years
putting all areas of our business under
the microscope trying to become more
efficient without compromising quality
or our core values. Financial and service
modelling have mapped out options.
Cautious creativity is paving the way
forward, bringing to light opportunities that
would otherwise remain invisible. We’re
finding the right balance between brave
exploration and rigorous testing; finding
new territory but not settling until it’s been
trialed and tested.
We’ve applied this review process to
our financial systems, business modelling,

building and construction schedule,
staff development, quality control, risk
management and the way we case manage
and deliver our care. The process has led
to an overhaul in some areas but in other
cases we have been required to go ‘back to
the drawing board’.
This is because we have some
foundational aspects of our care that we
believe set us apart and that we refuse to
compromise on, such as: the hours of care
that we offer and provide to each resident;
our policy of having a chaplain dedicated
to each of our care centres; and striving
to always have in place leading-edge
dementia and palliative care.
We haven’t proceeded with any new
initiative that would’ve meant an adverse
effect on these aspects of our services.
Embracing change through innovation
and new process modelling and testing
has required sound and efficient support
systems. In 2014, we upgraded our
financial system to Epicor Senior Living
Solution (Epicor SLS). Eldercare required
software that would provide aged-care
legislative compliance and at the sam