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Thomas Holt

Thomas Holt group

A case study that shows how modern technology and innovation have transformed aged care.

Aged care provider Thomas Holt has placed innovation firmly at the centre of its business model, an approach more aligned with a start-up than a 60-year-old company.

Chief Executive Officer Alexandra Zammit explains that the core of Thomas Holt's innovative philosophy is a “fail fast” approach to implementation.

“If you don’t fail fast and fail often, as well as consult with clients, staff and stakeholders along the way, you will remain static and it’s likely you won’t be sustainable over the long term,” Alexandra says.

Human touch

To keep ahead of the rapidly changing healthcare industry in Australia, Thomas Holt has created a state-of-the-art facility at its Kirawee site in Sydney which uses robotics, sensors and machine intelligence to create a unique care environment that can identify pending illness, stress and declining cognitive ability in its clients. All the information is fed into a database that helps create long-term care regimens and is easily accessible to families and their GPs.

Although the company is setting new standards of innovation, it still believes an old-fashioned human touch is vitally important.

“Technology frees up our staff to focus on the client, because, no matter how good robotics or artificial intelligence is, it can never replace one-on-one care,” Alexandra says. 

Things you should know: This article is intended to provide general information of an educational nature only. It does not have regard to the financial situation or needs of any reader and must not be relied upon as financial product advice. The CommBank Business Insights Report: — Healthcare is based on a sub-set of a wide-ranging quantitative survey of 2,195 business owners, decision makers and managers. This subset comprises responses from 149 businesses within the Healthcare sector. The survey was conducted on behalf of the Commonwealth Bank by DBM Consultants between August and September 2016, with further analysis by the Commonwealth Bank. Participants were drawn from businesses across Australia with an annual turnover of over $500,000 and at least two employees. The survey was designed to benchmark the innovation performance of each business, identifying the key motivations and drivers influencing their performance, and highlighting best practice. Any opinions, conclusions or recommendations are reasonably held or made, based on the information available at the time of this report’s compilation, but no representation or warranty, either expressed or implied, is made or provided as to the accuracy, reliability or completeness of any statement made in this report. Commonwealth Bank of Australia ABN 48 123 123 124 AFSL and Australian credit licence 234945.