Strategic Plan (2008 – 2013)
September 7, 2009
Filed under General Information
Prom Country Aged Care is on the cusp of fundamental change. Birth rates have fallen, people are living longer, and the local population is set to decline over the next 20 years.
All age groups under the age of 65 are expected to shrink, but a’ tsunami’ of ageing baby boomers will see the proportion of people over the age of 65 grow by 148 per cent, to more than 40 per cent of our local population. The major growth of this age group will be in people living beyond the age of 80.
Government initiatives to enable older people to live in their own homes for longer will help curb demand for low-care hostel accommodation; however, the needs of people with greater levels of frailty and complex health problems will drive significant growth in demand for quality high-care nursing home services.
The need for more respite care will also grow, as the number of families caring for their older relatives rises.
By 2011, the South Gippsland region is predicted to have just three surplus low-care beds and a deficit of 33 high care beds. By 2016 that deficit will have grown to 39 low-care beds and 68 high care places.
To address this shortfall, the Government and private ‘supported residential’ services and ‘extra service’ facilities, are investing in new, state-of-the-art infrastructure, such as in Inverloch, Yarram and Leongatha.
These facilities – and the exponential growth in retirement villages – represent significant competition for Prom Country Aged Care, requiring us to not only seek ways to ensure our facilities are competitive, but also to also look to possibly extending our services beyond aged care to other areas of community need.
Enabling people to age in one place – without the anxiety of having to move from a familiar low care hostel to an unfamiliar high care nursing home – is a significant trend in best practice aged care globally. This poses a significant challenge for organisations such as ours, which operate predominantly single-purpose facilities in different locations.
Finding ways to address this situation – and operate as a more efficient and streamlined organisation is a priority.
A further challenge in coming years will be our ability to attract and retain the skilled and qualified workforce necessary to meet the community’s needs at a time when the number of working age people in the district is declining. As the number of people under the age of 45 shrinks, so workforce availability will shrink. This is likely to put mounting pressure on wages and increase the mobility of staff between employers.
The size and viability of Prom Country Aged Care operations is also a significant challenge.
With government-regulated funding and increasing operating costs across the industry, small 30 bed facilities are becoming less and less viable and are marginal businesses at best. Even with the most cost-effective structure, a small operation such as ours is vulnerable to any changes in cost, regulation or other factors.
-
In short, the key strategic issues challenging stand-alone and smaller group aged care providers are:
- Compliance with changing regulations and associated costs;
- Maintaining accreditation and certification;
- Staffing capacity and competition for skilled and specialist staff;
- The cost of rebuilding facilities to comply with certification requirements and the expectation of current and future residents, and
- Providing and continually upgrading services to reflect community and resident needs.
This Strategic Plan sets out how Prom Country Aged Care will address these challenges over the next five years and beyond. Delivering quality care in ways that are relevant to the needs of residents and their families is at the core of these strategies.
