Budgeting for Successful Aged Care

How an ERP Solution Will Help Optimise Resources Across your Facilities

How do you select an ERP system if you are an aged care or home care provider?

When answering this question, you need to consider the budgeting and forecasting capabilities of the solution. Cost is a constant concern for all providers in the aged and home care industry, and you need to be able to accurately model the needs of your residents in order to budget for the future and reduce the cost of operation on a day-to-day basis.

Specially designed aged and home care software systems help Australia’s care providers to manage resources, reduce costs in the short- and long-term, and keep on offering the very best care. Software systems such as the Epicor Senior Living Solution (SLS) help to achieve this in several ways.

Automating Key Processes

Automation gives you a unique opportunity to reduce costs and make your budget go further. Have a process that requires no human input or oversight? How about a procedure that relies upon quantifiable responses to questions? In most cases, these can be automated effectively, without compromising on the care you provide. In the process, this unlocks a wealth of different opportunities to augment and enhance the care you provide, as your organisation becomes more efficient, more agile, and better positioned for high-quality care delivery.

With the right ERP solution, automation is easy and is driven by the data that is analysed by and stored within the system itself. You will find that as manual processes are automated your teams and resources can be better deployed elsewhere, reducing the costs associated with care delivery.

Achieving Effective Resource Management

Even with a powerful ERP solution in place, not all processes can be automated, and many will still need close human attention. This is especially true in aged care facilities, which are inherently human-oriented. Residents within aged care facilities must have their needs catered to by human personnel, and the health and well-being of these residents depend on the skill and expertise of staff and medical professionals.

However, an ERP system is still an invaluable resource here. Firstly, as we have seen, automating key processes enables human resources and other resources to be properly distributed elsewhere. This means that human personnel are free to do their jobs more effectively.

Secondly, the platform provides a crucial vantage point from which to manage resources of all kinds. Users can quickly assess the resources available and analyse inventory levels. This means that changes can be made quickly and efficiently on a micro and a macro level without disruption to the level of care offered.

In terms of budgeting, this is a crucial capability. Wasted resources, or resources that have been allocated incorrectly cost aged and home care providers large amounts of money each year — money that these organisations simply cannot afford. Keeping on top of resource management makes it much easier to budget effectively and helps capital resources to stretch further.

Accurate Modelling and Forecasting

Resource management is key in the here and now, as aged care facilities seek to provide optimal levels of care to residents on a day-to-day basis. However, the broader aged or home care business cannot operate exclusively in this way. While they must remain agile and flexible enough to execute short-term changes at quick notice, they must also be able to effectively plan and develop strategies in the long term.

This is where ERP can help. ERP software will provide you with visibility of past data and pre-existing data sets as it crafts accurate and precise forecasts for future needs. Aged care facilities will find that they are able to model possible procedural changes ahead of implementation, as well as predict material, equipment and resource needs far into the future.

Standard ERP solution does provide significant benefits here, but these benefits can be augmented further with specifically designed aged and home care ERP software, such as the Epicor Senior Living Solution (SLS). This software has been crafted with the Australian aged care industry in mind, and delivers forecasts based on the specific needs of aged care providers, their internal users s and the residents and families they care for.

Without accurate forecasting, effective budgeting becomes almost impossible. While budget decisions may be possible in the short term, powerful aged and home care software is what Australia’s providers need if they are to draw up effective budgets – budgets that secure the best possible standard of care in the long term.

Real-time Data Sharing and Collaboration

One of the key factors that makes an ERP system such an effective budgeting and forecasting solution is the sharing of data in real time. In order to provide the highest levels of care to residents and end users, team members need to be able to work together effectively and efficiently, regardless of where they are located.

Within a centralised care facility, it is relatively easy to achieve and maintain team collaboration and communication. However, when we factor in multiple facilities needing to communicate with the head office and each other and for many providers the addition of the provision of care in the home, a high level of real-time communication becomes a little more difficult to achieve. Enterprise resource planning systems make it easier to handle real-time data input and review, as well as collaboration between different teams on different tasks, across multiple locations.

This achieves a ‘right first time’ level of efficiency, both from teams across facilities and deployed in the field and from those in management or performing head office functions. Not only does this secure optimal health, safety and well-being for the recipients of care, it also makes budgeting easier and more effective as resource wastage is significantly reduced.

Reducing Costs and Increasing Efficiency

Aged care software like Epicor Senior Living Solution (SLS) is designed to provide a number of different tools and capabilities that help to more easily manage your budget and make it stretch further. The entire process of defining, managing and implementing your budget is more efficient and easier to carry out. No more sticking points or areas of friction, just a straightforward route to high-quality care delivery.

Want to find out more about what Precise Business Solutions and the Epicor Senior Living Solution can offer Australian aged and home care providers? Book a 15-minute informal phone discussion with one of our aged care ERP solution specialists to see if we are the right fit for you.