From Split to Integrated: A Caregiving Partnership To Deliver A Tailored Solution
HammondCare is an independent aged care provider with a passion for improving the quality of life for people in need. Regarded both nationally and internationally as one of Australia’s most innovative health and aged care providers, the organisation champions the care of 28,067 people across Australia and employs over 5000 people. As a residential care provider, HammondCare provides over 1500 beds across 21 facilities with a specific focus on dementia and mental health care. Today, its Home Care division is emerging as a significant part of the business by allowing people to continue living independently in their own homes with care tailored to their individual needs. HammondCare also operates three hospitals with a focus on mental health, palliative care, rehabilitation and research. While also participating in the Federal Government’s Dementia Support Australia Program, has allowed HammondCare to grow into a national organisation with 65 offices in every city across Australia.
For large organisations to operate efficiently and deliver quality care it’s important to integrate systems. But for some time HammondCare had been using five different systems across its finance, operations and residential care teams and, as a result, data wasn’t easily accessible – resulting as a source of frustration for teams. Each system needed to be individually updated and the technology was out of date. For the finance team, billing could take up to three days while financial claims would take up to two weeks across its 21 facilities. In addition, operations couldn’t access all-important billing information to issue invoices. As a result information was not integrated, reporting and analytics was a manual process that the team dreaded because it was spread across the five systems. The inefficiencies were further compounded by human error because information could not be distributed quickly which created additional work for the team.
Overall, these inefficiencies took significant time away for staff requiring them to log into sites and perform time-consuming administrative tasks. Something needed to change.
HammondCare needed to embark on a major overhaul to address the significant impact its split system was having on the organisation. It needed to bring all of the systems under one modern umbrella to create visibility and standardise procedures across the organisation. While upper management and the C-suite also needed fast automated reports to deliver insights and steer decision making. HammondCare Acting CIO Praneel Anand said modern technology from Epicor offered the solution with a simple user experience without the need to train staff in multiple systems while backups and upgrades would be automated to create a proper three-tier application.
“It had become obvious to the team that we needed a single solution if we were to modernise the organisation and create efficiencies. We realised we needed to bring together our different processes under one umbrella to standardise our operations and create visibility across the entire organisation,” said Mr Anand.
Over a six-month period, HammondCare reviewed eight different vendors before settling on Senior Living Solution, part of the Epicor for Care solution set, ticking all of HammondCare’s boxes for residential management. The solution has been delivered as an on-premise solution, however, HammondCare will soon transition to the Epicor public cloud environment.
The platform provides a central repository for all resident-based data and helps the business to accurately manage onboarding, billing, and funding from end-to-end management solutions. In addition, all accounts receivable, such as invoicing and receipt functions, are also managed by Epicor Senior Living Solution.
The system was also customised for HammondCare to capture clinical information creating efficiencies for the residential operations team. Senior Living Solution is specifically designed for operators of residential aged care, independent living, and community care organisations. “If we didn’t have Epicor, we would not be able to support the growth of our business, or the rate at which the company is growing,” Mr Anand said. “We were paired with Epicor consultants who had the right skills to see us through. The nine-month process was the fastest implementation we had ever undertaken at HammondCare. Epicor has been particularly crucial for our Residential division which our previous systems could not support,’’ he said. ERP solution help ensure everything is in one place By integrating Epicor across all HammondCare’s regions and facilities there is now clear visibility across the entire organisation. Databases and backups are all in one place with a proper three-tier application. Work can be delivered efficiently and easily and no longer a source of stress. Staff now have a simple user interface and experience and they no longer need to learn to navigate multiple systems. Reports are generated easily, and teams have the confidence to make sound decisions based on solid data.
Mr Anand said the Epicor integration meant staff can now connect in real-time whereas previously if clients or residents had a request it required the residential operations to contact the finance team with a query and then wait for an answer before going back to the customer. “It’s helped build a stronger relationship between our operations and back-office teams. With better visibility, the operations team no longer need to worry about whether finance has run a billing process, because it’s fully automated. The team can seamlessly access reliable trustworthy information fast,” he said.
Every Epicor consultant we spoke to was an industry expert and we came to rely and trust Epicor, not only as a technology provider but as a trusted adviser. It was the best part of the experience and they are PRODA certified unlike other vendor we worked with.
In a sector with rapidly evolving compliance regulations and regulatory processes it was important for HammondCare to have a partner that was dedicated to compliance to optimise caregiving and accountability.
“Epicor makes sure that we’re up to speed with the latest industry and the latest government regulations. None of the other vendors we spoke to regularly met with government departments or had a direct connection with the department like Epicor does, from a compliance and regulatory process perspective.” “Every Epicor consultant we spoke to was an industry expert and we came to rely and trust Epicor, not only as a technology provider but as a trusted adviser. It was the best part of the experience and they are PRODA certified unlike other vendor we worked with,” Mr Anand said.
Supporting future caregiving according to Mr Anand, HammondCare’s overall experience with Epicor and its consultants has been nothing short of positive. “We know that our system is set up for ease of use and upgrades - preparing us for future growth and success,” he said. Senior Living Solution was the right system for HammondCare because it was customised to help aged care service providers navigate and simplify the complexities in a competitive and crowded marketplace. It’s easy to deploy and simple to use, so the HammondCare team is no longer hampered by an ageing system and outdated interfaces giving the team time to continue innovating and focusing on championing the care of its residents and customers. With Senior Living Solution, HammondCare is set up to continue growing both its residential and home care divisions with ease and efficiency. HammondCare are also in a transition phase migrating their financials management system to Epicor, making Epicor ERP the single source of truth for all things financials. Upon completion of this project, HammondCare will be moving to Epicor’s secure cloud offering.
