HammondCare shifts from paper to digital

HammondCare is undergoing a major modernisation of its system and processes under its ‘Next Chapter 2025’ strategy.

Achieving the not-for-profit's relationship-based care ambitions is "highly dependent on data and technology”, according to CIO John Sutherland.

Sutherland told iTnews at Saleforce's Dreamforce 2023 conference that, after launching ‘Next Chapter 2025’ three years ago, the organisation “embarked on a comprehensive, integrated and compelling digital strategy”.

Founded around 90 years ago, HammondCare was first established as homeless support before moving to nursing homes. It now specialises in complex dementia and palliative care.

Sutherland said while the organisation has gone through “lot of innovations in the physical world and in models of care”, it’s “probably fair to say that from a technology adoption perspective, it hasn't really been keeping pace with today's opportunities.”

“Our digital strategy, our digital transformation was really three parts," he said.

“Catching up with the basic IT hygiene, modernisation would be the second part, and the third part is bringing that kind of innovation DNA that was in the physical world and the models of care and exploring opportunities to innovate in the digital world.”

Sutherland told iTnews “HammondCare is really the last of the major aged care providers to still be on paper for our residential aged care business”.

Under its transformation work, HammondCare is currently digitising and moving to an electronic health record system by Leecare Solutions, which - he said - “care workers are taking to it like ducks to water”.

“The Royal Commission into Aged Care several years ago ... noted that the aged care sector was in the dark ages when it came to technology adoption," Sutherland said.

“There's lots of opportunity around moving from manual and paper processes to digital, or moving from legacy systems to more modern systems.”

Sutherland said another large part of its business is its ‘At Home’ homecare service which recently underwent a technology partnership change when Telstra Health ended its ComCare product support.

After it “went through a process”, HammondCare landed on adopting Salesforce’s health cloud system.

The system enables HammondCare to “embrace the kind of contemporaneous technologies” available “in the home care setting that surrounds sophisticated ways of matching client needs with our care workers skill sets”.

It also lets the business optimise “the way that we schedule visits, better consistency in visits” and “uses AI to do these sophisticated algorithms to help better match and meet the needs of our clients.”

Sutherland said HammondCare uses Salesforce in other parts of its operations - in its admissions processes, residential aged care business, volunteer and bereavement services and in its foundation.

Sutherland added this latest At Home project to shift Telstra Health ComCare system on to health cloud will help complete a 360-degree view of customer, “so it's a very exciting time for us.”

“We'll be completing that project in early in calendar 2024. Like any of these projects, they're complex and managing the data transition from the legacy system to the new system, you need to have a lot of checks and balances in place”.

“We're using the agile delivery method, so sprints and so it's a continuous evolution of the project, with testing, increasingly becoming a part of each of those sprints,” he said.

Born of the cloud

Sutherland mentioned while there are many aspects of the business to bring into the digital age, its government-backed National Dementia Support Australia Programs (NDSP) “runs completely in the cloud”

“Our 350 dementia consultants also advise most of Australia's providers, who are caring for people with dementia," he said.

“It's a fantastic business and it runs completely in the cloud.

“We use a combination of Salesforce for that business, as well as Amazon Web Services. It's a fantastic example of a more recent business, relative to the 90-year history of HammondCare, which was born in the cloud.”

Moving forward, Sutherland said one opportunity he’s most looking forward to is the chance “to embrace some of the AI capability”. 

He said it will allow HammondCare to provide better care by understanding its clients and adjust services around those insights.

“That’s what lies ahead of us, but you've got to have the data first," Sutherland said.

“One of the challenges in the sector is information that might be sitting on paper today is effectively trapped in that paper.

“When you digitise that, you then can use that information for decision making and trends and so forth. That's probably one of the more exciting things ahead of us."

Sutherland is also keen to explore opportunities around smart sensors for the home or in residential aged-care.

“These are sensors that are developing very rapidly that are able to detect mood changes in people, that use sophisticated radar to remotely sense temperature and breathing and movement and so forth”.

While the likes of smartwatches can be worn by residents, the future of smart sensors is where “AI is sophisticated enough that you won't have to wear these sensors”.

“They will be in the room and they will be observing your behaviour. So that all lies ahead of us," Sutherland said.

Kate Weber travelled to Salesforce's Dreamforce 2023 conference in San Francisco as a guest of Salesforce.