Government now set to to deploy enterprise data platform initiative
LONDON: A government department has now set out to to deploy an innovative enterprise data platform initiative.
The Department of Health and Aged Care is setting up a new enterprise data and analytics platform, with Google Cloud’s BigQuery service forming a “core part” of the architecture.
The department will begin by migrating Hadoop-based workloads into an instance of the BigQuery enterprise data warehouse platform before expanding to other unspecified data assets “from a range of internal sources”, the cloud provider said in a statement.
Google Cloud said it will also train “up to 70” department staff, “equipping them to take full advantage of the analytics platform within four months.”
The media has asked the department for further details of the project, including whether other vendors’ tools are also part of the platform, and the extent to which the work aligns to the whole-of-department data strategy, which spans 2022 to 2025.
One of seven objectives of the strategy [pdf] is to “determine and progressively implement the technology and innovative tools that support and enhance our capability to get the most from our data”, though the strategy doesn’t specifically reference plans to set up an enterprise data warehouse capability.
Google Cloud suggested that data consolidation would improve compliance and “yield substantial cost savings and efficiency dividends to the department’s analytics program”.
The government is also using increased levels of data about aged care homes to monitor whether providers are passing on the full wage rise granted to staff by the federal government.
The federal government’s “Dollars to Care” tool, which launched on Wednesday night on the My Aged Care website, allows users to compare individual homes across Australia on key care metrics and see how they fare against sector averages.
The data, which was collected by the government and has been available to the sector for some time, is being made public for the first time – with users able to see statistics including the amount of money spent on food each day, resident satisfaction and feedback from staff, whether food is prepared fresh or off-site, the average pay for nurses and care workers, the income of the facility and whether it made recent profits.
It will also show the results of resident experience surveys including what kind of meals residents can expect each day, highlight issues that staff surveys raise as of “most concern” and “most complimented”, and outline areas the facility is focused on improving.
The aged care minister, Anika Wells, said that while most facilities were doing the right thing, “we have to shine a light on those who aren’t and take action”.
Wells said the latest tool would “hold providers to account for how they spend taxpayer money, and ultimately help people make informed decisions about their care”.
Better transparency tools were a key recommendation of the royal commission into aged care.
Government data collected quarterly shows the total amount of care given to each resident and total spending on daily care rose significantly between mid-2022 and mid-2023. The average care minutes for each resident each day rose from 187 minutes to 196 minutes over that period, with the total care labour costs also rising from $173 to $206.
The data collected by the government is also being used to monitor which homes are passing on the Fair Work Commission’s 15% pay rise. Providers who are not passing on the increased government funding meant for wage rises will be referred to aged care regulators.
The new tool will show the types of staff employed at homes such as dietitians, podiatrists, recreation workers, nurses and speech pathologists, and how much the facility spends on care for each resident. It will also reveal how much the facility spends on administration, cleaning, COVID infection control and maintenance.
Spending on aged care will again come under the microscope with the impending release of the long-awaited report from the government’s aged care taskforce, which investigated the future sustainability of the sector. The report is expected to recommend moving towards more of a user-pays model, where residents with greater wealth or means will be asked to contribute more to their care.
Anthony Albanese recently appeared to rule out changing means tests around the family home, but sources in the aged care sector said they expected changes to other settings and means tests such as around superannuation, or adjustments to the basic daily fee charges to residents.
Aged care industry sources said they expected the report to be released in mid-March, with a government response to follow some time afterward.
