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Whiddon, a major residential aged care provider in New South Wales and southeast Queensland, is accelerating its digital maturity with plans to explore AI and virtual care adoption following ongoing works to enable data interoperability.
Recently, it has implemented a smart, centralised system, provided by Telstra Health, for standardising care planning and reporting across all 24 homes. The platform reportedly allows staff to capture and access information at the point of care.
Besides that, Whiddon also adopted Telstra's web-based application for sending transparent accounts of care to residents' families and a mobile application that enables staff to quickly view, act, and record care on the spot.
WHY IT MATTERS
These implementations, which allowed staff to access and document information at the point of care, were done as "legacy systems were no longer sufficient," deputy CEO and COO Alyson Jarrett told Healthcare IT News.
"Despite having teams that were highly capable and committed, the tools available to them simply didn't support real-time, point-of-care documentation." Previously, Whiddon relied on legacy digital systems, paper-based processes, and site-specific workarounds for clinical documentation and compliance.
The organisation, she noted, had "significant variability" in how information was captured, given that the old systems were not intuitive or aligned with contemporary workflows.
"Clinical notes and care plans were often completed after the fact, which increased the administrative burden and, critically, reduced the time our clinicians could spend directly with residents."
"In our regional locations, connectivity constraints and a lack of interoperability only compounded these delays, limiting visibility across the organisation," she added.
As data was fragmented across Whiddon, it could not establish a consistent, organisation-wide view of care delivery. They also had to reconcile data manually to produce evidence for audits or accreditation.
THE LARGER CONTEXT
Whiddon's decision to implement Telstra's solutions was also driven by new regulatory requirements under the Aged Care Act, which was enforced in November. In 2024, the Australian government invested half a billion dollars in "significant technology and platform maintenance and enhancements" in critical aged care digital systems, so they remain contemporary and compliant.
"We needed a future-ready digital foundation capable of supporting not just today's compliance obligations, but ongoing reform and continuous improvement," Jarrett said.
The deputy CEO describes Whiddon's current digital posture as "foundationally strong and progressively maturing." On the clinical side, it has a "solid digital core" that includes electronic clinical management systems, while pushing for its consistent adoption and digital capability uplift.
"Operationally, our maturity is accelerating, with core enterprise platforms now supporting finance, workforce management, and supply chain functions." She added that the organisation is increasingly leveraging data to "reduce manual effort and support decision-making, always prioritising the standardisation of processes before the application of technology."
Whiddon is also "moving from provider-centric information sharing towards genuine digital enablement for residents and families," Jarrett shared. "[O]ur direction is to use portals and communication tools to foster greater choice, transparency, and connection."
Right now, Whiddon's immediate priority is data interoperability, which is the "prerequisite for everything that follows," according to Jarrett. That includes the shift from retrospective reporting to forward-looking insight, as well as digital tools for workforce sustainability, such as mobile workflows and smarter rostering.
It is also "pragmatically" exploring the application of virtual care and remote monitoring, particularly for regional contexts, while the adoption of AI rests on strong data foundations, clear governance, and transparency, the company's COO said.
