October 16, 2025
Recent reforms in aged care – including the Australian National Aged Care Classification (ANACC) funding model, new star ratings, and strengthened Quality Standards set by the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission – represent important changes to the sector and understanding their impact on care delivery and operations is essential.
These updates, further reinforced by the upcoming Aged Care Act expected to commence from 1 November 2025, place greater emphasis on transparency and accountability in care. Technology is emerging as a critical tool to help providers navigate these challenges, offering improvements in efficiency, compliance and cost-effectiveness. By adopting the right technological solutions, aged care providers can streamline processes, improve efficiencies, better support their workforce and meet regulatory requirements.
Connected aged care solutions boost operational efficiency significantly. When personal care workers use smartphones with integrated applications to complete tasks directly in a resident’s room, it eliminates trips back to the nurse station. As care is provided, the app automatically logs care minutes, offering precise and effortless documentation. This automation protects residents’ data and gives staff more time to engage with residents, strengthening relationships and enhancing care quality. Connected devices also improve care quality by supporting more responsive interventions. Safety is reinforced with built-in personal duress alarms linked to the wireless network. In urgent the individual’s precise location instantly for prompt assistance. These measures protect staff and create a secure environment as staff can focus on their duties with confidence.
Technology also addresses one of the biggest pain points for aged care providers: regulatory compliance. The AN-ACC model requires precise documentation of care delivery, and traditional manual record-keeping is both time-consuming and error-prone. Electronic health records (EHRs) automate this process and make it easier to capture and manage data in real time. This improves the accuracy of care documentation, reduces the administrative burden on staff, and lets providers meet audit and reporting requirements without disruption. It also lets providers flag when additional funding is needed to meet a resident’s care requirements, ensuring providers maintain the necessary resources to offer high-quality, compliant care. Automating compliance tasks also reduces the risk of penalties and enhances operational transparency, which is critical when interacting with regulators and stakeholders.
Staff satisfaction is another area where technology delivers clear value. Automating repetitive tasks, such as updating care plans and logging resident data, significantly reduces the paperwork burden on care staff. Mobile apps provide real-time access to resident information and let staff make informed decisions quickly without returning to a central workstation. This improves productivity and helps reduce burnout, which is a key factor in the aged care workforce crisis. more effectively, reducing turnover and the reliance on agency workers by reducing the workload.
The financial benefits of technology adoption extend beyond operational savings. Providers can reduce overtime costs and improve resource allocation by automating routine tasks like medication management and care documentation. For example, management can gain insights into staffing needs using workforce analytics, to plan rosters more efficiently and avoid the expense of agency staff during peak times. This resource optimisation leads to significant cost savings, which can be reinvested in improving care standards or expanding service offerings.
Collaborating with technology suppliers is crucial to integrating these solutions successfully. Providers must work closely with partners who understand the specific challenges of aged care to customise solutions that meet their unique operational requirements. Whether it’s designing a real-time location system (RTLS) that covers all critical areas of a site or configuring an EHR system that aligns with compliance mandates, strong partnerships will deliver immediate improvements in care delivery and long-term operational efficiency. The benefits of technology adoption extend beyond day-to-day improvements. As the aged care sector evolves, providers that invest in the right solutions will meet current regulatory and operational demands and position themselves for future success.
Alicia Schottler, national aged care practice lead, Connected Health, Wavelink
