Gov rebuilds aged care provider system on Salesforce

The Department of Health and Aged Care has revealed that a new aged care service provider management system is being built on Salesforce.

The government provider management system (GPMS) is intended to replace the current 20-year old national approved provider system (NAPS). 

Both function as repositories of approved aged care services providers.

Digital transformation and delivery division first assistant secretary Fay Flevaras told a recent webinar that “several … deliverables” for the GPMS had gone live at the end of 2022. 

The nature of these deliverables isn’t clear from the presentation or accompanying slides - they are simply described as releases 1.0 and 1.1 - but Flevaras did provide some detail on the technical underpinnings for the new platform.

“The government provider management system is the name of our new product which is being built on our Salesforce platform along with a lot of other software [including] MuleSoft, DocuSign,” she said

“It’s a big foundational piece of work that will help to support the delivery of many of the initiatives that we’re running.”

The department has agreed to an initial two-year deal with Salesforce worth $13.5 million, according to a contract notification published earlier this month.

The contract, which runs through to the end of January 2025, was agreed through the DTA’s cloud marketplace. 

Accenture is also listed separately as being involved in the GPMS project through the back half of last year.

A recently-published fact sheet [pdf] for the GPMS states that it “will establish a modern system to give aged care providers, government, and older Australians access to up-to-date information on the quality and safety of aged care services.”

The system is also intended to “reduce complexity for providers by working towards a modern, consolidated, and single interface-solution to support their interactions with government”, and potentially enable “greater connectivity and data sharing between care providers and government.”

The GPMS is also described elsewhere as the repository where aged care providers can review information relating to their star ratings, a new transparency system that rates the quality of services provided in residential aged care.

Aged care IT modernisation received major funding in last year’s federal budget, as a response to the findings of the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety.

Updated 16/3 5.55pm: The article stated that MilSOFT was involved in the project, based on a transcript of the webinar. It's since been confirmed the vendor is MuleSoft.