In conversation with Donna Doyle - CEO, Boort District Health
As the aged care sector in Australia prepares itself to face challenges never seen before, the leaders in this sector are busy working overtime to innovate, drive change, and retain talent, as the sector braces for a shortfall of ~100,000 workers by 2027-28 as the sector.
We had an opportunity to speak to Donna Doyle - CEO at Boort District Health . Boort District Health (BDH) is a small rural health service situated in North-Central Victoria in the Shire of Loddon. Donna has been in this role for over six months. Donna joined BDH seven years ago and was previously the Director of Clinical Services.
BDH has a seven-bed acute facility for acute patients and a 25-bed aged care facility for high and low-care aged care residents. They also have an urgent care centre that is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. This facility is supported by the nursing staff who work in acute care. They have a doctor on call, (GP who lives in Boort) and he provides on-call services to the hospital.
Donna and her team also run community-based programs such as a district nursing program to provide home-based care and an adult day centre program with activities such as luncheons and talk groups. BDH has an active volunteer program made up of about 40-50 volunteers. Part of that program is a transport-based program where patients are transported from their homes to the doctors for scans or tests or to see specialists.
BDH's biggest challenge? Attracting health professionals to the region.
According to a study conducted by researchers from the University of Melbourne, the Australian population aged 65 and over will grow to 6.66 million by 2041 from an estimated 4.31 million in 2021 – an increase of 54%. Most organisations in the Aged Care sector currently face staffing shortages. Attracting and retaining skilled workforce in regional areas comes with additional challenges. Boort is 250 kms from Melbourne. There is no local public transport. Things one takes for granted in a metropolitan setting just doesn't exist at Boort. However, what Donna and her leadership team have to offer is a great work-life balance, an awesome lifestyle that doesn't exist in built-up areas, and the opportunity to work in the aged care sector.
What does it take to do well in the aged care sector?
The willingness to have a conversation and to sit with someone who needs care or support with basic things that we all take for granted.
For Donna and her team at BDH, it's a privilege to be able to support people to do that when they get to that stage of their life.
Communication is another key skill to do well in this sector. The ability to find a common ground with everyone that you meet, something to chat about, and just seeing what it does to residents when you give them that time and show a bit of interest in them.
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The Eziway experience
Eziway was given the opportunity to be Boort's salary packaging service provider earlier this year. In the past, Donna's involvement with Salary packaging was something she did as part of onboarding. There wasn't much education or training on the options and the benefits. And what the team at BDH found when they engaged Eziway was that there's just a whole world of opportunities out there that most of the staff didn't know existed.
In Donna's words,
"The team at Eziway made it easy to understand why you would want to take the time to sign up to salary packaging. Eziway made it really, really easy. The communication is absolutely incredible and versatile - gold class. It's something that we didn't have with our previous provider. Communication was difficult. The staff would send an email or not get a response for days and sometimes wouldn't get a response. With Eziway, the staff get a response almost straight away or within the day."
"The Eziway team just pick up the phone and ring. They follow up to make sure the BDH staff understood the email or just wanted to touch base". For Donna and her team, "it's a pleasure partnering with Eziway."
"For the team at Eziway, our issues, concerns, and our business is as important as the bigger tertiary hospitals."
Thank you BDH for your service to the local community and for giving us an opportunity.
Notes:
written by Shrinivas G - Brand & Marketing Lead - Eziway Group