Healthcare

Rapidly changing health needs, expectations and affordability will continue to increase pressures on the Australian healthcare industry.

Today, the sector is significantly funded by national and state governments challenged by multiple pressures from ageing infrastructure, workforce and patients.

Rising interest rates and household costs will drive health insurance participation rates down. Private providers will need to develop new strategies to manage their business and increase market share.

Reform in all health sectors will add uncertainty and affect both private and public suppliers for several years. Consumer expectations and activism is increasing and policy directions are not expected to be affected in the short term by illness prevention strategies or changes in government.

Investment in e-health will escalate, driven by expanded opportunities in remote and rural areas from the National Broadband Network. Companies will face the multiple challenges of:

• Integrating multiple heritage systems
• Ceilings on public sector budgets
• Integrating offsite and non-staff installations
• Complying with sector standards and specifications

To successfully compete, healthcare companies must identify how they can more effectively manage increasing services and shrinking budgets, while delivering better value for patients.

While this challenge applies to all healthcare sectors, companies also face specific issues depending on their position in the service chain:

• Product manufacturers (biopharmaceutical and medical technology companies) must continue to fund research and development and deliver demonstrable improvements in patient outcomes. With PBS budgets under increasing fiscal scrutiny and policy preference to generics, price increases for pharmaceuticals must be constrained despite increasing cost pressures. Controls on marketing and promotional activities will increase rather than ease.
• Private suppliers need product and services that offer real alternatives to existing models. To succeed in an environment of increasing price-sensitivity and transparency, businesses will need to find pricing and service innovations that do not compromise quality.

With all these challenges making business harder and harder, Oakton can help companies get ahead of the competition through better strategies, better business processes and better systems.

Oakton’s healthcare consulting experience

With a number of projects in the healthcare sector in the last 20 plus years, Oakton experience covers strategic issues, such as performance improvement, operating efficiencies, cost management and reduction and organisational effectiveness.

In the last 12 months we’ve created tangible value for Calvary Health Care ACT, Epworth Hospital and Healthe.

To find out more about Oakton’s expertise in this area, please contact Brin Thiedman.