How Should Aged Care Providers Choose Technology?

11 hours ago

4 min read

Choosing technology in aged care involves assessing how well a solution supports care needs, everyday work and organisational priorities. A sound decision considers functionality alongside usability, integration, security, cost and the provider’s ability to implement and support it.

The choice might involve a care management platform, rostering system, medication solution, monitoring service or communication tool. Across residential and in-home care, the objective is to select technology that people can use effectively and that the organisation can sustain.

Technology advisory brings these considerations together, helping providers define requirements, compare options and assess the evidence before committing to an investment.

A useful assessment covers six connected areas.

1. Understand the need and intended outcomes

A clear description of the problem provides the foundation for evaluating options. This requires input from the people receiving care, staff performing the work and leaders responsible for service delivery.

Providers should establish:

The care or operational need being addressed.
Who experiences the problem and how it affects them.
The improvements expected from an investment.
Whether changes to processes or existing systems could meet the need.
How the decision fits with the organisation’s digital strategy.

For example, delayed care documentation might reflect difficult mobile access, duplicate entry or unclear responsibilities. Understanding the cause helps determine whether the appropriate response is a new platform, better configuration, improved connectivity or a change in working practices.

2. Define requirements around real work

Requirements describe what a solution must enable people to do and the conditions in which it needs to operate. They should distinguish essential capabilities from useful additions and future possibilities.

Areas to consider include:

Care and operational workflows the solution must support.
Accessibility, ease of use and staff digital confidence.
Mobile access, device requirements and connectivity.
Reporting and information needs.
Differences between services, locations and user groups.

A residential care team may need to review information quickly during handover. An in-home worker may need to record a visit where connectivity is unreliable. Testing these scenarios reveals more than a general demonstration of available features.

Staff and service-user involvement can also identify requirements that are easily missed, such as screen readability, language needs or the time available to complete a task.

3. Assess integration and information flow

Most technology needs to work within an existing environment. Providers should understand how information will move between systems and whether those connections support the way services operate.

Questions should cover:

Which systems need to exchange information.
What data will be shared and how frequently.
How records will be matched and kept consistent.
Which connections are available now and which require development.
Who will build, maintain and support integrations.

A care platform might need to exchange information with rostering, payroll or finance systems. A claim that a product “integrates” needs further explanation: what information moves, in which direction, under what conditions and at what cost?

The assessment should also consider how existing information will be migrated and checked before the new system is used.

4. Examine safety, privacy and reliability

Technology decisions can affect access to care information, service continuity and the experience of people receiving care. The depth of assessment should reflect the consequences if the solution fails or information is mishandled.

Providers should examine:

Access controls and protection of sensitive information.
Data storage, sharing and supplier access arrangements.
System availability, backup and recovery capabilities.
Clinical risks where technology informs care decisions.
Accessibility, consent and the preferences of people using it.
Evidence supporting claims about safety or effectiveness.

For monitoring technology, this includes understanding missed events, false alerts and the response arrangements needed. For care documentation, it includes how staff access essential information during an outage.

These questions help establish whether the proposed solution can operate dependably within the intended service.

5. Compare suppliers and the full cost of ownership

The supplier relationship and commercial arrangements influence whether a solution remains useful and affordable over time. Evaluation should cover both the initial investment and the resources required throughout its use.

This includes:

Licences, devices, implementation and configuration.
Integration, migration, training and internal staff time.
Ongoing support, maintenance and price changes.
Supplier capability, references and delivery experience.
Service commitments and responsibility for resolving problems.
Data export, transition support and exit costs.

A lower subscription price may come with greater configuration effort or additional support charges. Providers need a comparable view of costs, assumptions and exclusions across shortlisted options.

Supplier references are particularly useful when they reflect a similar care setting, organisational size and implementation scope.

6. Test suitability and prepare for implementation

Before committing, providers should gather evidence that the preferred option can meet their requirements. The approach may involve structured demonstrations, reference checks, technical validation or a carefully scoped pilot.

The assessment should establish:

Common scenarios and evaluation criteria for each supplier.
Evidence of how essential requirements are met.
Limitations, workarounds and unresolved questions.
Implementation resources, responsibilities and dependencies.
Staff readiness, training and ongoing support needs.
Success measures and acceptance criteria.

A pilot should answer specific questions, such as whether staff can complete documentation during visits or whether alerts reach the right team reliably. Its findings should inform the investment decision and implementation plan.

Making a decision that can be explained

A well-supported technology decision records why the preferred option was chosen, which trade-offs were accepted and what must happen for it to deliver value. It also identifies who owns implementation and the expected outcomes.

That gives providers a practical basis for moving forward and reviewing results. The central question is whether the solution fits the people, services and organisation that will depend on it.

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.