Exceeding quality standards at Good Shepherd lodge

Founded by members of the local Anglican diocese in 1974, Good Shepherd Lodge Ltd is a not-for-profit Aged Care organisation serving the Mackay region.  

In this short article, we’ll share insights from Good Shepherd’s quality systems review, assessment criteria to select their new quality management system and experience working with Riskteq.

Good Shepherd quality systems review and findings  

To further strengthen their commitment to continuous improvement and prepare the organisation for the strengthened quality standards, the team at Good Shepherd conducted a comprehensive systems and process review. This included: 

• Detailed feedback from staff members to understand the functionality and limitations of existing quality systems. 
• Knowledge assessments to get a better understanding of existing staff qualifications and skills. 
• Analysis of all data exchange points to understand anything important that was not being captured in existing reports. 

“Riskteq specialise in integrated quality, safety and risk management which means we could centralise everything through a single system. Their user interface is fresh with clean screens and enables staff to manage tasks through logical workflows, making the system intuitive and easy to use,” says Michelle Weathered, Quality & Risk Manager, Good Shepherd Lodge Ltd.

The review identified a number of key opportunities for improvement:

1. Existing software systems were being underutilised  because they were not user friendly and difficult to navigate. This was especially the case with the document management system which made it hard to refer to procedure documents and hindered the capture of valuable data that could be used to guide performance improvement. 

2. It was difficult to get a single view of Quality across the entire organisation because multiple non-integrated systems were used for different sites and service types. 

3. Software system limitations drove widespread use of excel and disparate systems to record and store  information. This meant that data was not centralised  and pulling together reports required significant administrative overhead. Where centralised reports were available, they were not always comprehensive  and lacked sufficient drill down capabilities (e.g. drilling down into individual village data).

4. Processes for managing incidents, hazards, safety, risk and feedback could be more robust. 

Requirements for a new Quality and Risk Management Platform 

After going through the results of their quality review, the team at Good Shepherd realised that it was important to invest in a single integrated Quality and Risk Management Platform that would be easy to use and provide end to end visibility across all Quality related activities, incidents, processes, procedures and documents.

The Good Shepherd’s list of key documented requirements included the following: 

• Visually appealing and user friendly (easy to use, easy to learn)
• A single cloud based system that could be used across multiple sites, all service types (residential, retirement, allied health, home services) and organisation functions
• Everything in one place, integrated
• Ability to customise to meet organisational requirements
• Strong vendor support (during the implementation and ongoing)
• Modular. Flexibility to start with modules and capabilities required today with the option to add on modules and functionality in the future
• Short implementation timelines
• A well defined approach for staff training and instructions

Selecting and working with Riskteq 

After a thorough assessment of multiple technology providers, Riskteq’s integrated cloud based Quality and Risk Management Platform was selected as the best technical, commercial, support and cultural fit for Good Shepherd.

Multiple components of the platform have already been implemented successfully and gone live. Based on her experience with Riskteq from a technical standpoint, Ms Weathered said some of the specific feature highlights of the platform include: 

• ISO based Plan, Do, Check, Act cycles
• Single screen views across entries, related plans and actions without having to switch between various tabs
• A wealth of standard inbuilt reports with the ability to customise and add-on
• A modular approach and architecture that enables organisations like us to get started at a smaller scale by solving for immediate requirements without having to invest in setting up a monolithic system from day one

Commenting on her experience with Riskteq from a commercial, support and cultural perspective, Michelle added that, “Riskteq is an established business with a proven track record in Australian Aged Care.”

“Their modular approach means we only need to pay for the functionality we use whilst having the flexibility to add on at any time. Riskteq’s sales and customer management approach is quite refreshing.”

“They focus on solving problems and letting the product speak for itself rather than a strong sales push. They listen and respond very promptly to any issue or inquiries, making you feel like you are their only customer! Most importantly, they are professional and they deliver.” 

For more information please visit https://www.riskteq.com/