See the real, measurable benefits that i.on my brings. Read what our clients have to say:

• St Luke's Care
• Lerwin Nursing Home
• Barunga Village Aged Care
• Alphington Aged Care
• Plus these further case studies available as pdf downloads:
  • The Kings School – Parramatta, NSW
  • Cherubs Childcare Centre – Toowoomba, Qld
  • Alphington Aged Care Facility – Melbourne, Vic
  • Testimonials

St Luke’s Care

St Luke’s Care (SLC) offers a range of health and aged care services including a 71 bed hospital, two aged care facilities (158 and 137 beds), retirement living and homecare – in Potts Point and Little Bay in NSW.

Deborah Key, SLC’s Director of Nursing said like many health and care organisations, SLC is information overloaded due to the nature of the industry and the legislative and compliance requirements that need to be met.

“SLC deal with three accreditation bodies; we are required to provide a load of information and evidence from across the organisation to show we are meeting our compliance standards,” Deborah said.

“Information collection and management can be a very time consuming process, particularly when it’s done manually. I believe, organisations need to focus their time analysing and acting on data rather than the collection,” she said.

Deborah discovered ThoughtWare’s i.on.my software at a conference and since its implementation in February 2009, SLC estimates it has saved over 4000 hours in manual administrative work.

All SLC’s information is now on i.on.my – medication errors, complaints registers, feedback and suggestions, incidents, quality register, compliance register, risk notifications, the list goes on...

In the 18 months since its implementation in February 2009, SLC estimates it has saved over 4,000 hours in manual administrative work

Prior to installing i.on.my, SLC’s critical information was collected manually and stored in files across the organisation. The process was extremely lengthy and resource intensive. Through i.on.my, SLC has been able to streamline the collection and storage of data into one centralised function.

“i.on.my is very flexible and we have been able to tailor it to meet SLC’s different business needs. What’s really great about the system is that we can link information to accreditation standards. We no longer have to spend copious amount of time searching for information. Data is instantly accessible to SLC’s management team and i.on.my has facilitated the simple production of automated reports and reminders; it all very easy,” Deborah said.

SLC has about 60 i.on.my staff Champions who can enter information directly into the system, allocate tasks and monitor and track information. SLC has a number of committees which report to the Board of Directors and using i.on.my allows committees to customise reports and keep track of actions.

SLC has over 1500 staff credentials on the system and Deborah says i.on.my has improved their human resources management. “We can track all of our employee’s mandatory requirements – police checks, licences, first aid, professional qualifications, working with children check etc. The system tracks it beautifully and allows the management team to instantly confirm that all staff employed meet the required professional and legislative requirements,” Deborah said.

Lerwin Nursing Home, South Australia

Lerwin Nursing Home is a council-owned, aged care facility based in regional South Australia at Murray Bridge, which is about 75km from Adelaide. The aged care facility has 110 staff (55 fulltime equivalents), servicing the residential and care needs of 75 residents.

The aged care industry is one that is highly regulated. Both federal and state governments conduct accreditation programs focusing on aged care service standards, fire and safety. Throughout the year, random checks and audits are carried out by the government and a full accreditation assessment is carried out every three years. Lerwin conducts self assessments during the year to ensure it is addressing all of its requirements and striving for continuous quality improvement.

Lerwin looked for an IT program that would demonstrate they were meeting all their legislative requirements, particularly in relation to accreditation, occupational health and safety and risk management.

Lerwin’s Manager of Community Services, Reginald Budarick, said evidence is essential in any auditing process. “Unless you can demonstrate to an auditor that you have done something, they don’t necessarily believe you have done it. IT systems help us to simplify and streamline our processes making compliance reporting and governance simpler.”

Lerwin had tried IT software packages before but they had become onerous to maintain and did not easily facilitate participation in the quality and compliance system by a range of staff across the organisation.

Lerwin discovered the i.on my Care package, an award-winning product developed by ThoughtWare, a company that develops governance, risk management and compliance software.

The great thing about i.on my Care is that it can assign actions to staff and audit trail the request

Lerwin installed i.on my Care in January 2008 and has not looked back. The aged care facility use the IT software for accident and incident reporting, committee and meeting management (minutes and actions), staff suggestions, hazard identification and continuous quality improvement.

Mr Budarick said: “A good database program is one that can internally link information together and allow users to use the data in several ways. I believe i.on my Care does this extremely well.”

“The great thing about i.on my Care is that it can assign actions to staff and audit trail the request. We work in a busy environment, so setting up reminders for both management and staff members helps ensures everything is completed in a timely manner.  A key strength of i.on my Care is that staff member’s input into the system is as easily as answering an email.  This kind of familiarity is a real advantage,” Mr Budarick said.

Mr Budarick said ThoughtWare was very supportive and listened to its user-base to ensure their IT solutions were right for the industry. “ThoughtWare are very responsive to our suggestions for improving the IT solution and have upgraded the product with their users in mind,” Mr Budarick said.

Barunga Village Aged Care Facility

Barunga Village is an aged care facility based in the coastal town of Port Broughton, 180km north of Adelaide.

The 52-bed facility provides high and low residential care and also manages a specialised dementia wing, 14 independent living units and a 42-home retirement village.

To ensure the aged care facility meets all of its regulatory obligations, Barunga Village is required to record and report on operational matters such as service improvement, continuous improvement; and staff and resident incidents.

Barunga Village’s Business Manager, Maureen Coffey said that since they started using ThoughtWare’s i.on my Care software in January 2010, the Village’s management of information and governance had improved dramatically.

“When we used to do our service improvement forms, actions were tracked through minutes and manually on a sheet of paper. Now with i.on my Care, any related conversations, information and actions are linked within the system. All the data is recorded centrally rather than in multiple files; it’s a far more productive process.”

When we are audited, we can easily obtain the necessary information and evidence that’s related to a particular standard, clearly outlining any issues and how we have dealt with them

Maureen came across i.on my Care at the 2009 National Aged Care Conference. What appealed most to Maureen about the solution software was that it could produce a desktop audit report for accreditation. “In the past we have spent hours completing our desktop audits, trying to gather all of the data and supporting evidence from multiple sources and files. i.on my Care has enabled Barunga Village’s management to centrally manage information and to access it instantly and easily,” Maureen said.

Through i.on my Care, service and continuous improvements can be linked to any of the four aged care service standards. Maureen said: “This means that when we are audited, we can easily obtain the necessary information and evidence that’s related to a particular standard, clearly outlining any issues and how we have dealt with them”.

i.on my Care allows Barunga Village to generate automatic reports. For example, management has scheduled a monthly report that outlines the number of incidents that have occurred in the month, who was involved and the action/s taken. The report is automatically generated and emailed to the relevant staff. i.on my Care has eliminated the lengthy manual administration that was previously required to develop the monthly reports.

Maureen says the system has greatly improved their governance. “All our meeting agendas, minutes and actions are loaded onto the system. Actions from meetings are allocated to staff via an email, which provides a link to the action the staff member is required to complete. Weekly reminders and automatic reports keep both management and staff on top of what needs to be done to make us more accountable.”

Barunga Village plan to store all of its policies and procedures onto the system, as well as train ground staff so that incidents can be recorded straight away, making everyone even more efficient.

Alphington Aged Care facility, Victoria

Alphington Aged Care is a 45-bed hostel located 7km from Melbourne’s CBD. The facility has built a reputation for resident lifestyle and quality of care and continuously looks for ways to improve its practices to enhance each resident’s physical, mental and spiritual wellbeing.

Fiona and Greg Harding have been owners and managers of the facility for the past two years. Since January 2008 the facility has used the IT software package i.on my Care, developed by ThoughtWare, to improve its operations and processes.

i.on my Care has helped Alphington Aged Care improve resident care through enhanced continuous improvement, human resource management, quality management and internal accountability.

Greg believes the software is user-friendly, effective and powerful. “i.on my Care allows us to record information about our staff, from their training right down to the date of their birthday or service anniversary. The program has made our staff feel more valued and as a result are more engaged,” Greg said.

The program has made our staff feel more valued and as a result are more engaged

i.on my Care also allows Alphington’s human resources processes to be more structured. For example, staff performance review date reminders, the actions from the review (training, points of discussion etc.) and recurring follow-up-dates can all be entered into the system ensuring information doesn’t get lost, is actually acted upon, and keeping management and staff more accountable.

“i.on my Care has an exceptional reporting function that enables us to keep track of staff credentials including police checks and CPR training. These are regulatory requirements, so it’s important that our staff credentials are up-to-date, and that we can demonstrate this to any auditors. Auditors have commented to us that i.on my Care is one of the most traceable, transparent systems they have seen,” Greg said.

In July 2010, Alphington Aged Care received the ‘Australian Aged Care IT Implementation of the Year’ Award (less than 150 beds) for its successful implementation of the i.on my Care package.

Auditors have commented to us that i.on my Care is one of the most traceable, transparent systems they have seen