Beyond compliance: Improving workforce efficiency in aged care

Aged care providers must balance care quality, workforce pressures, and rising costs with evolving reporting and compliance requirements. Better visibility and secure access can help organisations use time, technology, and staffing resources more effectively so care providers can focus on resident care

Aged care providers face tremendous pressure to deliver quality care while managing rising labour costs, regulatory requirements, and workforce shortages.

From the 2025-2026 financial year, all registered providers of residential aged care must complete a Care Minutes Performance Statement as part of their annual Aged Care Financial Report (ACFR). The statement must also be externally audited before submission.

The AN-ACC funding model supports funding for residential aged care, while mandatory care-minute requirements set targets for direct care, including a specified amount by registered nurses. The Inspector-General has warned that the focus on registered-nurse care minutes can come at the expense of care delivered by enrolled nurses. In some cases, it can pressure providers to prioritise additional registered-nurse capacity over maintaining a balanced skills mix.

The Inspector-General’s 2025 progress report on the implementation of the Royal Commission’s recommendations states that a reduction in experienced enrolled nurses has left some inexperienced registered nurses feeling exposed, which could jeopardize the quality of care provided to residents.

These workforce pressures also create significant financial pressure. Direct care labour accounted for 50–60% of total expenditure in IHACPA’s Residential Aged Care Cost Collection 2024–25 Final Report. Providers therefore need to understand where and why they use additional staffing hours. Every hour worked above the required target is an additional cost that could otherwise support resident care, workforce development, and technology investment.

Compliance is only part of the challenge

Meeting care-minute requirements is essential, but compliance alone doesn’t guarantee an efficient operating model. Providers also need visibility into:

• Where staff time is being spent
• Whether roles are being used effectively
• How workforce demand varies across sites and shifts
• Whether technology is creating workflow delays
• How operational data could inform rostering decisions

Without these insights, providers may continue to carry avoidable labour costs while staff experience unnecessary friction.

Technology can improve care delivery

Aged care employees move between shared workstations, medication areas, resident rooms, and mobile devices throughout their shifts. Passwords, repeated logins, and interrupted sessions can create small delays that accumulate across hundreds of employees and thousands of shifts.

In contrast, secure, streamlined access can help care teams:

• Move efficiently between shared devices
• Access the applications they need more quickly
• Maintain individual accountability
• Reduce password-related interruptions
• Support mobile and shared-workstation workflows
• Spend more time with residents

Better data, better decisions

Leaders need reporting that connects workforce activity with operational performance. This could help identify whether sites are consistently exceeding targets, roles are being over- or under-utilised, or technology-related delays may be contributing to overtime and workflow inefficiencies.

By examining workforce and operational data alongside insights into access activity, providers can make better-informed decisions about staffing, processes, and resource allocation.

The goal is not to reduce care. It is to ensure every hour, role, and resource is aligned with resident needs and organisational priorities, while also meeting compliance requirements.

Imprivata helps aged care organisations streamline secure access across shared workstations and mobile devices. By reducing access friction and maintaining individual accountability, Imprivata helps care teams work more efficiently while supporting the secure delivery of resident care.

Learn how Imprivata can enable seamless access across your facility.