How the aged care sector is getting rid of paper and embracing digitisation

The aged care sector involves a lot of paperwork. From initial customer assessments and application forms, to residential agreements and care plans, agreements are being signed all the time. And not just by the people who are entering aged care. Next of kin may need to sign forms. Support workers and suppliers may need to enter contracts. New hires need onboarding … the list goes on. 

What if these agreements could be signed digitally? How could the digitisation of all this paperwork help improve outcomes for new residents of aged care facilities, or streamline admin for time-pressed workers in the industry? 

To explore big questions like these, Docusign recently hosted a webinar on the digitisation of aged care processes. We invited Australian Unity, a Docusign Innovation in Action award-winner, to join the discussion — and the resulting webinar was an insightful revelation into how the aged care sector is transforming key agreement processes. 

Below is a quick recap — or you can watch the webinar on-demand.

The time for aged care to go digital is now

It’s understandable that aged care providers have traditionally leaned on paper-based forms — after all, older people are typically seen as being less tech-savvy than their grandkids. But things are changing fast, and older generations are proving both willing and able to sign things electronically. 

Indeed, according to KPMG, aged care providers should prioritise an investment in technology that enables the delivery of safe, high-quality care and creates operational efficiencies. Not only do technologies help to streamline internal processes, but they actually make life easier for the people being assessed and entering the aged care system.

As Docusign’s Glenn Powell explained, digitising key moments and processes in the aged care journey can help with everything from the signing of residential agreements, to onboarding new aged care staff or performing in-home care assessments. Stephen Thomas, Head of Operational Standards – Home Care Services at Australian Unity, wholeheartedly agreed.

Australian Unity transforms aged care agreements

In the webinar, Stephen shared Australian Unity’s journey in replacing paper-based forms and processes with Docusign (you can read their full story here). He was upfront about the company’s reluctance to go digital pre-Covid, based on the assumption that people over 65 are less likely to adopt digital processes.

But, as Stephen said, “Necessity is the mother of invention.”

With Covid restrictions making it hard for aged care workers to visit new customers in their homes, Australian Unity had to come up with workarounds. Snail mail was too slow. Leaving hard copies on customers’ doorsteps was too risky. Involving witnesses when signing was nigh on impossible. 

So the company turned to Docusign. “We introduced Docusign into a heavily paper-dependent environment, starting with a small user group and a couple of workflows,” said Stephen. “To understand the customer experience, we implemented two new signing options: eSign via the email link and also ‘sign on glass’, where the care manager could go into the home with their laptop, and the customer could sign using a stylus.” 

It was a great success, and Australian Unity soon rolled it out across the entire home health network. They now have about 500 users on the platform each day, and about one-third of new customers use Docusign.  

“Customers no longer need a witness when signing via email. The summary document from Docusign sufficiently proves who has been involved. Customers also receive a digital copy of all documents once the signing is complete. They can go back to their email and source it at any time,” said Stephen. 

As well as making things easier for customers, Docusign has also proven to be a great news story for the Australian Unity board. Since implementing Docusign, the company has saved 400,000 sheets of paper, which is the equivalent of 49 trees, 157,000 litres of water, 16,000 kilograms of CO2, and over 1,000 kilograms of waste.

And it helps address security concerns. “We now have a secure, safe workflow. There’s less risk of documents getting lost in the mail or on people’s desks. There are far fewer mistakes or incomplete documents. It saves us huge amounts of time,” Stephen said.

Given all these wide-reaching benefits, it’s no wonder that Australian Unity has further digitisation in its sights. “Docusign opens up the playing field for more options to be explored in the digital environment,” he said.  

Docusign in action in aged care

In helping numerous organisations in the aged care sector move to a digitised, self-serve model, Docusign is playing a key role in reshaping how the aged care industry operates.

Neha Gautam, Lead Solution Consultant, Docusign used the webinar to demonstrate how effective it can be. If you want to see the power of conditional fields, ID verification, and more help streamline and expedite the form-filling process, watch the webinar now. Neha walks through a simulated scenario that shows how easy the agreement process can be.

If you work in aged care and are keen to learn more about how Docusign helps digitise previously paper-based processes, get in touch with our team today. We’re here to help.