Aged Care Reform and Digital Transformation: Five Priorities for Providers
"Five years after the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety, Australian aged care providers face a different challenge. The direction of reform is established, but translating regulatory requirements into sustainable improvements in care, operations and consumer experience remains a significant undertaking."
From Royal Commission Recommendations to Operational Reality
When the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety released its final report in 2021, it established a compelling case for fundamental reform of Australia's aged care system.
Its recommendations extended beyond funding and regulation. They challenged providers to reconsider how care is designed, delivered, monitored and experienced by older Australians.
Technology was recognised as an important enabler of this transformation. Recommendations addressed assistive technology, digital infrastructure, interoperability, My Health Record and investment in innovation.
At the time, eHomeCare argued that providers needed to look beyond compliance and establish a clear digital strategy centred on care quality, workforce capability and consumer experience.
That argument is even more relevant today.
The introduction of the Aged Care Act 2024, the Support at Home program and the strengthened Aged Care Quality Standards on 1 November 2025 marked a significant transition from reform planning to implementation.
The question for providers is no longer simply how to prepare for reform. It is how to translate the new operating environment into sustainable improvements in care delivery.
Digital transformation has an important role, but only when technology investments are connected to organisational strategy, operational capability and measurable outcomes.
The Digital Implications of Aged Care Reform
The Royal Commission's recommendations highlighted several technology-related priorities, including assistive technology, access to care at home, digital infrastructure and improved information sharing.
These priorities helped establish the direction for subsequent reform.
Under the new legislative framework, the emphasis on rights, safety, quality, governance and accountability creates additional expectations for how providers manage their operations and demonstrate performance.
The strengthened Aged Care Quality Standards reinforce the importance of person-centred care, organisational governance, safe environments and clinical care. Their application varies according to provider registration category and the services delivered.
For providers, this has practical digital implications.
Care information must be accessible and reliable. Service delivery needs to be documented appropriately. Risks and incidents must be identified, escalated and managed. Leadership requires meaningful visibility of quality, performance and emerging concerns.
However, meeting these expectations does not necessarily require more technology.
In many organisations, the greater opportunity is to improve how existing systems, processes and information work together.
Five priorities remain particularly important.
1. Develop a Dynamic Digital Strategy
A digital strategy should establish how technology will support the organisation's care model, operational priorities and long-term sustainability.
Too often, digital investment begins with an immediate system requirement or a supplier proposition. While individual projects may address genuine problems, they can also create fragmented solutions and additional operational complexity.
A more effective approach starts with the outcomes the provider wants to achieve.
These might include improving care coordination, strengthening clinical oversight, reducing administrative effort, supporting workforce productivity or enabling greater independence for older people.
The strategy should then identify the capabilities, information, processes and technology needed to deliver those outcomes.
This is particularly important as providers respond to changing funding arrangements, regulatory obligations and expectations for transparency.
Digital strategy must also remain adaptable.
Artificial intelligence, remote monitoring and new care technologies are creating opportunities that were less mature when the Royal Commission reported. Providers need a structured way to evaluate these developments without continually changing direction.
A clear strategy establishes priorities while allowing the organisation to respond to new evidence and emerging opportunities.
For more on this approach, see eHomeCare's Digital Strategy advisory service.
2. Put People, Experience and Outcomes at the Centre
One of the Royal Commission's most important messages was that aged care must be organised around the needs, preferences and rights of older people.
Digital transformation should reinforce this principle rather than introduce additional barriers.
For someone receiving care at home, this might mean clearer communication, reliable scheduling, coordinated services and easier access to information.
In residential care, it may involve better information sharing between care teams, timely responses to changing needs and improved communication with families.
Technology can support these outcomes, but its contribution should be assessed through the experience of the people receiving care.
A new system that improves reporting efficiency but makes care interactions more complicated may deliver limited overall value.
Similarly, collecting more information does not necessarily improve care unless that information informs decisions and actions.
Providers should therefore establish meaningful measures of consumer experience, care quality and operational performance.
Feedback, complaints, care outcomes and service information should contribute to a continuous improvement process.
The objective is not simply to demonstrate that technology has been implemented. It is to understand whether it has improved the experience and outcomes of care.
3. Equip the Workforce for Care, Collaboration and Change
Technology adoption remains one of the most significant challenges facing aged care providers.
Introducing a new application does not automatically change how people work.
Care workers, clinicians, coordinators and managers need to understand why processes are changing, how new systems support their responsibilities and what is expected of them.
This requires more than training immediately before implementation.
Successful adoption depends on leadership engagement, workflow design, local support, appropriate resourcing and ongoing reinforcement.
Providers should also consider whether technology reduces administrative burden or simply shifts work between teams.
For example, introducing digital documentation may improve information availability while increasing the time workers spend recording activities if processes are poorly designed.
Similarly, automated alerts may improve visibility of potential risks but overwhelm staff if responsibilities and escalation arrangements are unclear.
The workforce should therefore participate in the design and evaluation of new ways of working.
This is consistent with the challenges explored in Why Care Technology Adoption Fails: Seven Influences Every Provider Should Understand.
Technology becomes sustainable when it fits the realities of care delivery and when the organisation has the capability to support it over time.
4. Align Operations, Information and Technology
Many providers operate multiple systems supporting care management, rostering, finance, clinical documentation, quality management and communication.
These systems may perform their individual functions adequately while creating difficulties across the broader care process.
Information is entered repeatedly, workflows cross organisational boundaries and important decisions depend on manual reconciliation.
The consequences extend beyond efficiency.
Fragmented information can affect care coordination, service continuity, reporting accuracy and management visibility.
For providers operating under Support at Home, the relationship between service delivery, confirmation, financial processes and claiming arrangements makes reliable operational information particularly important.
The opportunity is to design processes around the complete service journey rather than optimise each application independently.
This requires attention to data ownership, interoperability, workflow responsibilities and the information needed at different decision points.
Integration should not be confused with placing every function into a single platform.
A well-designed digital environment may include several specialised systems, provided they exchange appropriate information and support coordinated processes.
Our article Integrating Home Care Technology: Connecting Systems, People and Care explores this distinction further.
5. Optimise the Care Environment Through Technology and Innovation
The fifth priority is to consider how technology can improve the environments in which care is delivered.
For people living independently, this may involve assistive technology, environmental monitoring, emergency response systems and connected services.
In residential care, opportunities may include clinical information systems, monitoring technologies, communication tools and technologies that support safer, more responsive environments.
These developments can contribute to independence, safety and operational effectiveness.
However, technology should be evaluated against the specific care problem it is intended to address.
Remote monitoring may identify changes in activity patterns, but those changes require interpretation. Fall detection may improve awareness of an incident, but it does not necessarily prevent a fall.
Likewise, AI-enabled systems may identify patterns or assist with routine decisions without being sufficiently reliable to make autonomous clinical judgements.
Providers should distinguish between what technology can detect, what it can reasonably infer and what action it is authorised to initiate.
This requires appropriate clinical governance, privacy safeguards, clear escalation arrangements and evidence that the solution performs reliably in its intended environment.
Innovation should not be measured by the sophistication of the technology deployed.
It should be measured by whether the technology improves care outcomes, reduces avoidable risks or enables more effective service delivery.
Artificial Intelligence Adds a New Dimension to Reform
Artificial intelligence introduces opportunities that extend across all five transformation priorities.
AI may assist with administrative processes, information retrieval, documentation, workforce planning and the identification of patterns in operational or care information.
Conversational AI may improve access to services and support communication. Predictive analytics may help identify situations requiring further assessment.
However, AI also creates additional governance responsibilities.
Providers must understand the quality and limitations of the information used, how outputs are validated and who remains accountable for decisions.
Particular caution is required when AI influences clinical assessments, emergency responses or decisions affecting individual rights and wellbeing.
The existence of an AI capability does not establish that it is appropriate for care delivery.
A provider's digital strategy should therefore distinguish low-risk productivity applications from systems requiring more extensive clinical, ethical and operational assurance.
The challenge is to introduce AI in ways that strengthen professional judgement and service quality rather than obscure accountability.
From Compliance to Sustainable Transformation
The aged care reforms have increased the importance of reliable information, effective governance and demonstrable care quality.
Yet providers should resist defining digital transformation solely as a compliance exercise.
Compliance establishes essential obligations, but it does not necessarily create an efficient operating model or a better care experience.
A provider may satisfy reporting requirements while continuing to struggle with fragmented processes, limited workforce capacity and inconsistent information.
Equally, an organisation may invest in innovative technologies without developing the governance or operational capabilities needed to sustain them.
The greater opportunity is to bring these elements together.
Digital strategy should establish the direction. Governance should provide accountability. Operational design should connect services and information. Workforce engagement should support adoption. Technology should enable measurable improvements in care.
Through Digital Governance and Digital Transformation, eHomeCare supports providers in connecting technology decisions with organisational priorities, delivery capability and sustainable outcomes.
The Next Phase of Aged Care Reform
The Royal Commission established the case for change. Subsequent reforms have reshaped the expectations and operating environment for aged care providers.
The next challenge is making those changes work consistently across organisations and care settings.
Technology will remain an important part of that journey, but digital investment alone cannot deliver the transformation the sector requires.
Providers need to combine clear strategy, effective governance, capable teams, integrated operations and a sustained focus on the people receiving care.
The opportunity is not simply to become a more digital aged care provider. It is to use digital capabilities to become a better care provider.
Hubert van Dalen is the founder of eHomeCare, providing independent digital strategy, governance, technology and transformation advisory services to Australian aged care and disability providers.
Comments