HammondCare's Digital Transformation

Acknowledged as Australia’s leading provider of dementia services with a proud history of innovative, evolving models of care since 1932. With compound annual growth rates of 16% over the last 20 years, HammondCare is well-positioned to support more of the most vulnerable in society into the future.

Before sharing news on our digital transformation and how it will support that future, a plug for the International Dementia Conference. Hosted by HammondCare over two days, global experts, industry leaders and those with lived experience bring the latest complex dementia, palliative care and positive ageing research, practice and insights from around the world to share with the most engaged aged and health care professionals. The conference kicks off on Thursday and there is still time to register.

In service of our mission and personalised care philosophy, here are some highlights from our digital transformation over the last 3 years:

• The successful digitisation of our care and medication management services for residential aged care with our partners at Leecare , matching the Cerner Corporation 's EMR solution used across our hospitals.
• A giant leap into the future with a world-class approach to home and community care. We will be the first adopter of the new Salesforce home health platform with the support from system integrator, Innovior . This solution builds on our decade-long partnership with Salesforce, completing our 360-degree view of customers.
• HammondCare’s highly regarded Dementia Support Australia service was born in the Salesforce and Amazon Web Services (AWS) Amazon Connect cloud. It receives a major upgrade this year improving upon an already best-in-class B2B and B2C national advisory service. A range of AI technologies will be integrated to assist our consultants improve the client experience along with the introduction of online portals and omnichannel communication pathways in partnership with the team at Mav3rik .
• Embracing digital marketing and content management platforms like HubSpot , to connect our digital front door to service delivery.
• Our soon-to-commence Workday human resources information system rollout will transform our support to more than 5000 staff and many volunteers, followed by Workday Adaptive Planning .
• The ongoing development of new insights on our best-in-class data (IMHO) analytics Microsoft PowerBI platform. Special thanks to our CFO, sponsor and chief user-of-data, Rory Crout !
• The introduction of secure and highspeed SDWAN-enabled Wi-Fi data network across our many services thanks to Cisco and Cisco Meraki partners, helps families remain connected with their loved ones.
• Installing 70 A/V services across the organisation with @Generation E, the refresh of our Samsung Electronics Galaxy smartphones, Dell Technologies workstation fleet and adoption of InTune’s Autopilot for zero-touch deployments.
• We’ve reduced by half the helpdesk requests thanks to our partnership with Brennan and implemented best practice ITSM on ServiceNow .
• On the cybersecurity front, we’ve adopted new, world-class AI-driven controls with CrowdStrike and Proofpoint to keep the data entrusted to us secure, and the proving of our disaster recovery systems, a necessary underpinning of our digital journey. Simplified password controls are on their way...
• We are continuing to explore many AI opportunities, including smart sensors, optimising funding, voice-to-text transcription, semantic search and case summaries, augmenting our workforce using digital avatars, and exploring the role of digital twins in aged care.

These are but a few of the many achievements in our digital journey thanks to record levels of investment in modernising our systems and processes. I’d like to thank the board, board technology advisor Anand Barry , the entire executive team and former CEO Mike Baird for his leadership as we established our digital strategy.

Mike, thanks again for being the good shepherd! Your leadership, faithfulness, grace and humour, elevated the entire sector through your championing of the need to better recognise older Australians and those who care for them. Your tireless advocacy helped shape public policy, leaving a legacy for all Australians, work you are continuing in a broader sense to strengthen Australia’s democracy as CEO of The Susan McKinnon Foundation.

Welcome Andrew Thorburn , our new CEO. Andrew will be guiding the organisation through its next chapter as the pace of change accelerates and we respond to ongoing reform and market dynamics. One of those dynamics is the shift to providing greater levels of care in the community and the home. Andrew’s background in management consulting, fintech, banking and finance, and for-purpose investments, will energise how we embrace this future under his principled servant leadership.

Thanks to my colleagues in HammondCare and associates across the aged care and healthcare sectors for your support, wisdom, counsel, and encouragement as together, we continue our digital transformation.

Finally, my enduring gratitude goes to the 5000+ frontline workers who inspire us to do better as each day dawns. Thank you for all you give to those in their hour of need; to people of all faiths and no faith, in a way that recognises and celebrates the sanctity and dignity of human life expressed in all of us - imago dei!