INTHEBLACK October 2021 - Magazine - Page 31
STORY CHRISTOPHER NIESCHE
PHOTOGRAPHY LUKE MARSDEN
A N D R E W R AW O R T H C PA I S N O S T R A N G E R T O G E T T I N G T O T H E R O O T O F A
P R O B L E M I N O R D E R T O S TA R T E F F E C T I N G T R A N S F O R M AT I O N , A N D H E L O O K S
F O R WA R D T O O P P O R T U N I T I E S F O R C H A N G E W I T H I N T H E A G E D C A R E S E C T O R .
THE
TRANSFORMATION
TASK
I
t is not yet clear how Australia’s aged care industry
will change after the recent Royal Commission into
the sector, but whatever happens, organisations should
be getting ready now, says Andrew Raworth CPA.
According to Raworth, senior consulting manager
hospital and healthcare at information technology
and services company Rohling International, “We’re
about to embark on a whole new industry, business and
funding model in aged care that will transform every
aspect of the aged care industry, almost. It’s a massive
transformation over five years.
“Whatever the stance the government takes, there has
to be significant change. And I think providers shouldn’t
be ‘waiting and seeing’. They should be trying to act and
start improving now.”
The Royal Commission’s final report, issued on
1 March 2021, attributes many of the aged care system’s
failings to funding cuts by successive governments. It also
identifies a need for a philosophical shift that puts people
in care at the centre of quality and safety regulation.
Raworth says this is a huge opportunity for the
industry.
“If you’ve got the resident and the client at the centre
of everything – a very client-centred focus to your
business – then all the processes and the systems are all
centred to focus on achieving that great care outcome
for that resident,” he says.
CHANGES IN AGED CARE
In his role as a consultant, Raworth is well positioned
to effect change in the aged care industry, in advising
aged care organisations on how to bring people,
processes and systems together to help operate more
efficiently and effectively.
He runs business process workshops for clients,
where they review the “as-is” state of their processes
and business targets. Drawing on analytics, they outline
what best practice targets would look like and develop
recommendations and a roadmap for improvement.
For instance, Rohling International might look at
an organisation’s end-of-month billing and reporting
processes. In some organisations it can take 10 days
for the finance team to get their hands on the numbers
in order to review them and take appropriate action.
intheblack.com October 2021 31