In this interview, Inside Ageing (IA) speaks with Lumary’s Senior Vice President of Strategic Corporate Development, Jason Collins, about the role of digital technology and automation to help providers navigate increased requirements around compliance and business efficiency.
IA: Congratulations on your recent appointment with Lumary. It would seem your appointment has coincided with tremendous change in the aged care space and an opportunity for software vendors who can help providers navigate this change, including increased compliance requirements. Tell us a little bit about the Lumary offering and how it can help aged care providers.
Jason: It is certainly a challenging time for providers, with increased compliance requirements along with changes to funding arrangements. Any time providers are faced with this level of change the real challenge is always to accommodate the changes with minimum cost while maintaining the quality of service to the people they support, which is always first priority.
To achieve this, it is vital to have a technology system built with the same outcomes in mind. Lumary is built on Salesforce and provides broad functionality across home care. The end-to-end care management platform is designed to support providers in meeting these challenges and delivering measurable operational efficiencies through workforce management, support for a range of funding types and integration with third-party applications. The Salesforce platform provides the additional benefits of rich data access and first-class security controls which is critical for a system that stores client health data.
IA: Recent research suggests that many providers are still in their infancy when it comes to digital transformation and adopting end-to-end systems such as you offer. How do you approach this as a supplier? Do you also provide support in the areas of change management and alike and what advice can you provide on how to begin this journey?
Jason: As part of our implementation process, we undertake a readiness review in partnership with our customers to help identify areas where additional support or awareness is needed. Change management is a critical part of this. We have a dedicated implementation team, supported by a number of industry subject matter experts who have worked on the provider side and have a deep understanding of the challenges providers face.
In my new role, I will work closely with our customers to provide additional support at a strategic level, working with senior stakeholders to ensure that Lumary fits within a broader digital transformation roadmap and the customer’s existing technology ecosystem.
IA: Inside Ageing recently ran a series of breakfasts in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, focussing on Clinical Governance. We were interested to see a number of board members at these sessions. Are you finding that directors are playing a role in the adoption of a digital strategy, and is it wise to have their buy-in for such a journey?
Jason: It is very common for board members to be proactive in gaining a deeper understanding of clinical and digital governance as these are two areas that involve significant organisational risk, so having board-level support for a digital strategy is vital.
The digital strategy must be closely aligned with business strategy, and taking the board on the journey is necessary to build awareness and trust. Digital transformation is also expensive, and boards need a level of confidence that the significant investment will deliver the planned business outcomes.
IA: Workforce and the pressure associated with finding and retaining staff remain key issues impacting the sector and the capacity of providers to deliver quality care. What types of benefits can the workers gain from Lumary? I’m also curious if these gains are playing through to better staff retention because they’re spending less time on things like admin.
Jason: For frontline workers, tools to manage their busy days need to be intuitive and always close at hand. Lumary provides a mobile app for workers to view their rosters and daily tasks, access essential client information, record service delivery and view google maps to make it easier to get to a client’s location, as well as many other features.
In the current environment, we know that many casual workers, in particular, are working for more than one provider, so the quality of technology tools plays a critical role in which provider is preferred by workers.
IA: Lumary has been going since 2009, working across NDIS and, more recently aged care. You may be in a better position than most to comment on predictive analytics and how data can begin to help providers make better decisions, including the ability to predict the service requirements of those in their care. Are we there yet?
Jason: The power of predictive analytics to deliver quality insights to inform decision-making and strategy is well established. Still, it is a specialist skill and not every provider has the luxury of having a data analytics team. We have seen some use in the area of predicting and reducing incidents, for example, and there are many other areas where predictive analytics can be applied to achieve better outcomes.
At Lumary, we are working with our technology partners to use predictive analytics to help inform decisions regarding efficiency in workforce management and will continue to invest in the area of predicting future care needs for people in care based on individual needs and service history.
IA: Interoperability is often talked about as the first step when choosing the right digital partner. Tell us why this is so important.
Jason: Interoperable software is key to solving some of the healthcare industry’s most challenging hurdles. With the directive to deliver value-based care, an interoperable care management solution allows users to exchange information in real-time, limits the need for manual data entry and enhances communication for better care coordination.
By establishing a true data ecosystem, essential information can flow effortlessly throughout the business, creating efficiencies and optimising the entire organisation.
IA: Most Australians want to stay in their own home as they age. One can only imagine the types of technology that will emerge to support this. What types of technology are you seeing already that can help support people to age well in their own home?
Jason: There is a wide range of technology available to help support people to stay in their own homes, but the use of technology is not yet widespread. Some providers are doing exciting things in the residential aged care space, but technology usage in home care is not as well progressed across the board. The Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety made recommendations specific to this type of assistive technology which should lead to better outcomes for people who wish to live in their own homes in the future.
Some things that we are seeing with our customers include technology in the “smart home” category and assistive technology to improve mobility and independence within the home. A range of monitoring and sensor technologies are also being introduced that focus on the health and safety of people in their homes. Telehealth is also a noteworthy offering.
It is also necessary to stress the importance of technology in supporting connections with family and friends. An iPad that allows a person to video chat with family members would be seen by many as their most important technology device.
IA: What’s next for Lumary?
Jason: Lumary started in the NDIS sector, and we have since grown our platform to support Aged Care and Applied Behaviour Analysis in the US, supporting organisations that work with children with autism. We continue to grow each of these product offerings while at the same time identifying sectors that are underserved by existing products where we feel we can deliver a better solution for providers.
Lumary is a partner of this year’s Future of Ageing Awards. This interview is part of that partnership.
