Murrumbidgee Aged Care Network

A Care Together Project

Murrumbidgee Aged Care Network

Location

Murrumbidgee region, NSW, covering approximately 125,000 square kilometres from the Snowy Mountains in the east to the northwest plains and along the Victorian border to Wentworth.

What is the market failure being addressed?

Residential aged care facilities provide a vital service in the region, allowing people to be cared for as they age in their local communities. The nine small independent operators involved in this project are also important employers of local staff.  However, most aged care facilities in the region are struggling to cope with the growing administrative burden associated with issues such as recruitment, reporting, IT support, compliance and training. With increasing regulations flowing from the Federal Government review of aged care legislation, there is a related increase in administrative workload on managers and boards, which is unsustainable. These pressures all add up to an increased risk of closure if appropriate solutions cannot be found.

What is the project seeking to achieve?

The overarching aim of the project is to ensure the sustainability of aged care services in the Murrumbidgee region so that local people can continue to age in place. The project is exploring whether a co-operative might assist the existing residential aged care facilities by centralising some of the key administrative functions to achieve economies of scale and free up management time which might be better spent addressing the quality of care. By collaborating on shared services, these smaller, community-based providers can achieve greater efficiencies while still remaining independent and community care focused. A co-op would also allow for like-minded organisations to come together to share ideas on achieving common goals, even where the implementation might look slightly different for each facility.

Quotes

“Older Australians aging in small regional communities deserve the same high standards of care as those in larger urban communities, so it is vital we find ways to ensure the sustainability of services like ours.”

“By working together, we have the opportunity to address common administrative challenges that have the potential to detract from our ability to provide our residents with the highest quality care.”

Project leader

The project is being driven by a steering committee consisting of managers from five of the providers involved.