Adapting tech to meet complex challenges
Acredia provides an uplift for aged care providers with its software platform specifically designed to help providers thrive in these challenging times.
Dr Charles Chang
Stephen Pollock
Rob Hutchison Barry Johnson
Annabel Murfett
The aged care sector in Australia stands at a pivotal junction, marked by an increasing demographic shift towards an ageing population combined with a stringent regulatory landscape. Providers are navigating various challenges and complexities encompassing regulatory compliance, financial sustainability, staffing levels, care minutes, star ratings, and delivery of person-centred care.
More than ever, the role of technology has become pivotal in aged care, to help streamline processes and enhance operational efficiencies while uplifting the quality of care provided.
As a relative newcomer to the industry, Acredia is already making waves in the Australian aged care sector, with its innovative software platform specifically designed to help providers thrive in challenging times.
Founded in 2019 by Dr Charles Chang, Acredia takes its name from the word accreditation and is designed to help Australian aged care providers keep up with the everchanging nature of compliance requirements.
With a doctorate in information technology, Chang has a significant history of technology innovation. His achievements include the development of an electronic care planning software for PalmPilot and the integrated software for the pharmacy dose administration aid, PractiSoft. The latter being acquired by Douglas Pharmaceuticals in 2018.
“Acredia gives us the peace of mind that helps us sleep soundly at night.”
In 2006, Chang was also involved in the creation of one of the first electronic medication management systems for aged care, with the solution acquired by iCareHealth in 2008. Through his six years at iCareHealth, where he managed product innovation, Chang developed a deep understanding of the needs of the aged care industry.
“Providers need a software partner that is across regulatory changes and is responsive to their requirements,” Chang tells Australian Ageing Agenda. “No two providers are exactly the same in their processes and systems, we don’t force a certain way of doing things upon them.”
The software platform is highly configurable, simple to use, and easy for providers to format themselves. “Just because providers are operating in a complex environment doesn’t mean their software should be complicated as well,” says Chang. “If anything, it should be the opposite. Providers do not have the time for lengthy implementations and training.”
Acredia’s platform has been created with interoperability in mind. Designed with open APIs, the software integrates with several commonly
Acredia’s platform has been created with interoperability in mind
used systems – including My Health Record, eRx, PainChek, Xero, Epicor and Interoper8.
“Unlike other solutions in the market, Acredia is completely modular,” says Chang. “By leveraging the modular nature of our software, providers can select only the modules they need, integrate with their existing solutions and manage more of their business from one source of truth.”
Australian-owned and operated, Acredia has a dedicated team committed to customer success. The company is becoming renowned for lightning-fast configurations and real-time updates in response to customers’ requests.
Governed by an advisory board consisting of aged care providers with more than 100 years of combined experience in the industry, Acredia is constantly being updated to keep compliance simple for customers.
Notable advisory board members include Rob Hutchison – known for his leadership of the McKenzie Aged Care Group and lobbying the federal government on behalf of the industry – as well as Signature Care founder Graeme Croft who, over the last 35 years, has dedicated himself to building, owning and operating aged care homes.
With 14 aged care homes across Australia, Signature Care has aspirations to build a further 16 homes over the next five years. The company has also recently announced its acquisition by For Purpose Aged Care Australia.
Dedicated to building and operating residential aged care homes that deliver quality
“Providers need a software partner that is across regulatory changes.”
and person-centred care, Signature Care has implemented Acredia’s software nationwide across all of its homes.
Providing a plug-and-play compliance solution for newly opened homes, Acredia was easily customised to suit Signature Care’s workflows and processes, with Acredia’s point-of-care app –Care Direct – enabling staff to spend more time providing person-centred care.
Acredia’s Care Direct app incorporates nearfield communication technology. With NFC tags in all of the residents’ rooms and bathrooms, Signature Care’s Barry Johnson – general manager of quality and innovation – explains that “care staff can now walk into a resident’s room with their phones, scan the chip, and see the resident’s profile. Then, they can acknowledge and document the tasks that they’ve done – so it’s charting on the go. They don’t have to go back to the care station and sit in front of a monitor and then input the data … with Care Direct, they are doing it as it occurs.”
A year since adopting Care Direct, Johnson tells AAA he has noted “a correlation with a reduction in falls”. He adds: “We believe that’s because staff are with residents more, not sitting at the care station.”
Finance and clinical staff at Signature Care also sing Acredia’s praises. Stephen Pollock – chief financial officer at Signature Care – described Acredia’s Care Direct application as “nothing short of brilliant”.
“The Care Direct dashboard of all of the
Staff can walk into a resident’s room with their mobile device, scan the chip, and see the individual’s profile
homes is exceptional,” says Pollock. “Having this view and the ability to see all homes live will change our service level in such a positive way, not to mention our ability to identify homes that are struggling with service delivery. From where this started to where it is going is remarkable.”
Stepfhanie Reyes – clinical manager at Signature Care – says Care Direct “has completely changed how we work and interact with our residents.”
“I don’t think the staff will ever be able to go back to using notes or the computer for clinical care,” she adds. “Using Care Direct means that we can complete everyday care with real-time updates in the system from a handheld device, making each interaction with our residents more personal and more efficient.”
Other benefits include a halving of Signature Care’s call bell response time from over 3 minutes to an average of 1.48. “It’s been an incredible uplift in how we can manage our time,” says Reyes.
Signature Care now uses the Acredia platform to manage all aspects of residential aged care operations. “Ultimately, Acredia gives us the peace of mind that helps us sleep soundly at night,” says Johnson. “We’re able to monitor all operations using a single platform and we don’t have to worry about the constant changes in legislation because Acredia proactively adapts to our business requirements.”
Victorian-based aged care provider Medical and Aged Care Group began rolling out Acredia’s software in August last year, completing their implementation across nine homes just two months later, midway through October.
Annabel Murfett – group clinical systems manager at MACG – puts the speedy implementation down to the platform’s ease of use. “Whilst we did provide extensive training to all staff, the sessions were not complex and involved far less training time than other platforms we have implemented in the past. It’s intuitive and very user-friendly,” she says.
“It’s an easy platform to use. It’s intuitive and very userfriendly.”
Having worked at MACG for over 10 years, Murfett’s role encompasses a broad portfolio – including overseeing the Australian National Aged Care Classification, the National Aged Care Mandatory Quality Indicator Program, clinical indicators, education and training, and software systems such as Acredia.
Murfett tells AAA the decision to implement Acredia software came down to the fact that it would replace many disparate systems. “We had several different systems that we were using across the business – for instance, for clinical, quality and customer relationship management we had different systems. Acredia offered us the opportunity to combine as many different systems as possible into one platform.”
MACG’s care staff currently use Care Direct on staff’s iPads and are planning to trial the NFC tags at one of their homes in the near future.
“I think that the NFC tags I know other providers are using with Acredia are quite revolutionary,” says Murfett. “We wanted to get the system up and running efficiently for us before we added a further layer to it but it’s definitely something we’re very keen to try.”
The use of Care Direct is freeing up time for care staff to spend with residents. “Our care staff have iPads that they take with them to the resident, they assist the resident with their care needs and then they document before they move on to assisting the next resident. So, it’s point-ofcare documentation,” says Murfett.
“Historically with aged care – and a lot of the clinical software platforms – the care staff would sit down at the end of the shift and spend half an hour to an hour completing their documentation and that’s time that we felt could be invested in spending more time with the residents. We saw the efficiencies in completing point-of-care documentation.” she says.
“Care staff can go on their iPad and see everything that the resident needs right in front of them in one place, instead of having to jump to this chart or that chart,” adds Murfett. “Care Direct includes the summary care plan that they can access to determine the care needs of the resident and it has all the relevant alerts for the resident; everything’s on it. It’s a single reference point for the care staff.”
Requiring less training than other clinical software platforms, Murfett says the greatest challenge for care staff using Acredia’s Care Direct app was getting used to a different way of doing things.
“They’ve been very accustomed to congregating at the nurse’s station and completing all their documentation at the end of the shift. So it was a culture change and a mindset change because they’re actually going to complete it as they go,” she says.
“The initial resistance that they had at the start faded away very, very quickly. I had feedback in the first couple of weeks after a home going live with staff saying, ‘We love this, this is great.’” n
