Aged Care: A sector in transformation

The Aged Care sector is one that is under sustained and increased pressure. The manifestation of these pressures was laid bare in the Aged Care Royal Commission and are well documented.

Optus and Cisco hosted a roundtable event with leaders from the aged care sector in Melbourne which presented an opportunity to hear from aged care representatives and to allow them to take a short pause from the incredibly demanding day-to-day pressures and think more strategically on the medium and long term health of the sector.

The event was part of a series of roundtables focused on the future of our health and aged care sectors and the opportunities being presented by digitisation and technology to drive impactful transformation.

Three major insights were highlighted in the discussion:

Barriers in the adoption of technology

The aged care sector’s resourcing and staff challenges have been a barrier to the adoption of digital technologies. The Aged Care Royal Commission highlighted a range of deeply-seated challenges facing the sector which were amplified during the COVID pandemic. The fact that only 40% of aged care providers have a digital strategy is one indicator of the reactive approach that the sector has needed to take in recent years to deal with a series of compounding issues.

Shifting technologies to create better customer experiences

There is recognition that digital technology has an important role to play across the full continuum of aged care and the sector has largely adopted technologies such as telehealth and digital records management into their business operations.

The focus is now shifting to technologies that not only provide better experiences for those in aged care but also to create efficiencies and productivity savings with an immediate focus on using automation and digital tools to remove repetitive and non-critical tasks.

Major opportunities are likely to emerge in the application of smart home devices to support independent living with new security, monitoring and automation capabilities inside the home; data analytics including AI-augmented clinical decision-support that enables more complex decisions to be made and virtual and augmented reality applications supported by 5G Networks to provide immersive therapy to consumers and support staff training needs.

Implementing digital skillsets

Digital skills – not just technology – is going to be crucial if the sector is to successfully adopt new technologies. The Aged Care Royal Commission notes that the use of technology is a core competency for the aged care workforce and is currently absent from the Certificate III curriculum.^[1] As technology is increasingly embedded across the aged care sector, and becomes a more vital part of day-to-day operations, it will become increasingly difficult for aged care workers to be effective in their roles without high digital literacy and a new set of digital skills.

Download the Aged Care Report

These insights were uncovered by independent research commissioned by Optus and Cisco which you can download here.

The conclusion from the discussion is that this sector, perhaps more than most, can benefit from an accelerated uptake of digital technologies – in some instances to simply make up ground on lagging technology cycles – to drive meaningful impact across its workforce and the communities it serves.

Without targeted investment in technology the sector will struggle to overcome current and forecasted skills shortages, improve decision-making and continue to improve the standard of care in clinical, residential and at home settings.

[1] https://agedcare.royalcommission.gov.au/