Reimagining Aged Care

Opal Aged Care, one of Australia’s leading aged care providers, are reimagining the aged care experience, with a firm focus on working to deliver the highest standards of customer service and choice.

People often enter aged care in an urgent situation following an accident or incident in the home. At such a challenging time, residents and their families want to have confidence in the aged care home they’ve chosen. Unfortunately, there is still a negative perception of aged care in Australia, creating fear and anxiety for people who suddenly have to make this decision – whether for themselves or someone they love. Opal Aged Care want to change people’s perception of aged care, reimagining the aged care experience.

Listening to customers in his previous role within the Commonwealth Government, Opal Chairman, Professor Peter Shergold AC, helped shape national policy around consumer choice in aged care.

“There’s not a clear understanding of what consumer direction means in residential aged care. I think it’s up to companies like Opal to think through the implications.”

He says, “We don’t just want to roll out our ideas across all Opal homes. We want to talk to residents and their families about what they want.”

With this in mind, Opal has conducted its first national customer satisfaction survey. With nearly 3,000 responses in total from across their 71 homes, they gathered a clear picture of where they are meeting residents’ expectations, and where there is room for improvement.

The survey provided clear feedback from Opal residents and their families. For example, residents said they’re happy with Opal’s friendly nurses and the cleanliness of the facilities, but that the speed of answering call bells needs to be improved, along with providing additional lifestyle activities that are rewarding and meaningful and improving teamwork among staff in some of their homes.

Opal Aged Care are now working to address this feedback at all their homes, with each home following an action plan to implement changes and keep track of progress.

Great customer service is core to a good resident experience. Opal also want to know what people would like to see in aged care that isn’t currently available. Opal worked with a market research firm to survey more than 1,100 people in the community about new services they’d like to see in aged care in the future and Opal asked residents, families and managers in a number of their homes.

As a result Opal developed a suite of new products and services which have been rolled out across the majority of their homes. Several hospitality and accommodation services have been upgraded to provide packages of products that add a little extra every day luxury for residents to enjoy. This has included premium bath and body products, fluffy Egyptian cotton towels, and premium bedding and doonas. It also includes additional food choices at meal times, a 24 hour snack menu and special events such as canapé parties.

Opal have also improved their entertainment options, offering access to Foxtel, and are in the process of upgrading technology to help residents and their families keep in touch via phones and the internet.

Since rolling out the new services and products, Opal have conducted focus group sessions in a number of homes to gather feedback on the new services and to date, which has been very positive, with residents enjoying the additional food choices, and upgrades to services such as Foxtel.

During the research and feedback stage, Opal were able to gather ideas for new services, including beauty and shopping experiences, entertainment and transport options, companion services, and more. Opal are now trialling these ideas in homes, with the ultimate goal to provide residents and their families tailored, bespoke experiences to suit their individual needs.

Opal Aged Care has grown rapidly over the last few years, to meet the growing need for aged care services and invest in staff and service standards to ensure a quality experience for residents across all homes. Opal are looking to shape the future of the aged care sector so that accessing aged care services is the very best experience it can be for both residents and their families.

According to Opal’s Managing Director, Gary Barnier, the number one thing Opal learned in its market research, is that Australians don’t expect to see aged care as a “one-way ticket.” Gary envisages a future where residential aged care could include services promoting health and wellbeing to the elderly in their communities in addition to traditional residential aged care.

He says, “We think residential aged care can integrate with people’s communities, it can integrate with the acute health system, and it can rehabilitate people to help them to stay in their own homes longer. That’s a complete reimagining of residential aged care. It’s a really exciting time for us. We need to start looking to the future to develop aged care services we know Australians will want.”

Click here to find out more about Opal's residential aged care homes.