Featured articles from our Aged Care Today magazine authored by our Ageing Australia team and specialists within the aged care sector.
As providers respond to the new Aged Care Act, strengthened Quality Standards, broader data reforms and growing expectations from older people and their families, the ability to use digital systems well is becoming central to quality, safety and continuous improvement.
Digital maturity has been defined as:
“The organisation’s ability to adapt so that it can function effectively in an increasingly digital environment.”
Kane et al. 2017
In aged care, this means more than adopting new technology. It includes how organisations collect and use data, protect information, connect with national systems, support staff capability and make decisions that improve care.
The readiness challenge
The Aged Care Digital and Data Strategy and Roadmap 2024–29 identifies digital transformation as essential to meeting growing demand and improving quality of life for older Australians.
This is happening alongside:
For providers, digital maturity is becoming part of being ready for the next stage of aged care. It also supports the sector’s forward momentum, with organisations looking for better ways to improve efficiency, quality and outcomes for older people.
What providers are working through
Sector consultation continues to surface common priorities, including:
Three places to start
1. Get people on the same page
Digital maturity conversations can quickly become technical. There is often assumed knowledge, unfamiliar terminology and wide variation in systems, capability and experience.
A useful first step is creating shared understanding across leadership, clinical, operational, digital and governance teams.
This helps organisations make clearer decisions about what needs to change, what can be improved and where support is needed.
2. Learn from what is already working
Providers do not need to approach digital maturity in isolation.
Shared learning can help organisations understand what others are doing, what has worked and what challenges are common across the sector.
This can include:
This is particularly important in aged care, where providers vary widely in size, systems, resources and digital capability.
3. Measure before deciding what to change
A digital maturity assessment can help organisations understand where they are now and where they need to focus next.
These assessments can look beyond systems and technology to include data management, governance, policy, cybersecurity, workforce capability, staff confidence and readiness for change.
Measurement gives providers a clearer starting point before major decisions are made.
Where to from here
For providers, the first step is not always choosing a new system or tool. It may be asking the right questions:
Ageing Australia’s InnovAGEING program is working with members and the broader aged care sector throughout 2026 to support these conversations through workshops, webinars, shared learning, access to expertise and the upcoming Digital Maturity Uplift Toolkit, developed in partnership with the Australian Digital Health Agency.
For more information, contact or visit the InnovAGEING Hub at ageingaustralia.asn.au/innovageing
Greg Moran
Project Manager ‑ Digital and Data, Ageing Australia
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