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Welcome to the Healthcare Feature Book!

This Feature Book will help you, our informed readers or prospective advertising/featured clients, gain perspective on the different types of companies we’ve written about in the past, and which companies have placed strategic adverts in our publication as a means of appealing to our 70,000+ readers across the nation.

Our Healthcare readers span from all corners of the country, and stem from key coverage mar-kets such as:

• Biotechnology and Pharmaceuticals• Medical Device/Supplies/Equipment Manufacturers and Distributors• Private Hospitals• Aged Care Facility Operators• Retirement Village Operators• Peak Industry Bodies including Government Agencies, Industry/Trade Associations and Professional Associations/Memberships

This Feature Book will also provide our prospective advertising clients and featured guests an idea of our design capabilities, editorial competency, and the various advert sizes available.

We hope that you take away the information you need from this material; in order to make a sound business decision of working with Business World Australia.

Sincerely,

Raza MalikPublisher & Head of Editorial ContentBusiness World Magazine Pty LtdLevel 12, 280 George StreetSydney NSW 2000

mailto:[email protected]


Business World Magazine Pty LtdLevel 12, 280 George Street

Sydney, NSW 2000

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Howard Wright is one of those rare things: A na-tive New Zealand business that started almost organically, and one that keeps on growing.

Howard Wright started his business in the early 1950s in the basement of his house manufac-

turing hand wrought iron parts and structures. He was asked by a nurse who knew of his engineering and mechanical reputation to see if he could manufacture a more accessible modern hospital bed. She had seen some modern designs while travelling overseas and knew that New Zealand would truly benefit from the modern design ideas that they had implemented in their mechanical hospital beds. Howard was not one to shirk from a challenge and he enthusiastically took on the project. In his research he found that not only could he build a bed similar to the ones found overseas, he could markedly improve upon the design and func-tion of the beds.

Upon completing his first project, Howard Wright’s designs and technical skill began to gain notability throughout the New Zealand medical community. De-mand for his beds grew at such a rate that Mr. Wright was forced to abandon his basement business, and in-corporated his operations as Howard Wright Limited;


opening his first dedicated bed manufacturing factory in 1963. By 1970, Howard Wright Lim-ited was manufacturing almost all of the new hospital beds that were in use in New Zealand. However, in 1976 came the breakthrough that would per-manently cement his company and its designs internationally. The M4 bed, using the latest in hydraulic technology made the medical bed the easiest, most multi-purpose bed in the in-dustry, a design philosophy that Howard Wright Limited still uses today. The beds now use the latest technology available, and moved from hydraulic pow-ered parts to become completely electric. This allows for them to be run off batteries, be less bulky

and over all easier to integrate into a healthcare environment.

The simple recipe for success“A big contribution to our suc-cess is that we try to understand our users and their experiences. What we learn through this pro-cess we impart into the prod-ucts as we develop them,” says Howard Wright’s CEO, Bruce Moller. Moller began working for the company in 1991 as the General Manager. In 1997, he became the CEO and has main-tained that role ever since.

“It’s a simple concept and a pro-cess we really enjoy and with the awards we have gotten in the last

few years has shown that it is working very well.” The current version of the M8 medical bed has won several design awards, at home and abroad.

This is really no surprise. The M8 serves a multitude of purposes, and thus reduces hospitals need to purchase more than one bed or transportation system. With onboard configuration controls and a backup battery, the M8 reduces physical strain on both patients and their caretakers. “This is important,” says Moller, “something as simple as reducing the amount of times a caregiver has to bend over and lift some-thing reduces the amount of on-the-job injuries, which equals less down time.” When asked


that since the beds they design serve a multitude of functions and reduce injuries to staff, did this mean that the bed, after the initial purchase, eventually pays for itself ?

“Oh yes,” replied Moller, “Not just once but many times over.”

The evolution of design: Simple, Smart, and HumanThe M series of beds has evolved over the years, continually tak-ing advantage of technological advances and design innova-tions from the Howard Wright

design team. Howard Wright’s M8 critical care bed has won the top award at the Australian In-ternational Design Awards, the international iF design award, an award from the German based Red Dot awards, and an award from the Designers Institute of New Zealand in the Best Design Awards. “Howard was an inno-vative person, and that spirit has been infused into the company culture which continues to this day,” says Moller.

About the awards they have been recognized for, Moller is extremely grateful. “We know that we are a small company, but

we are pretty focused, and obvi-ously we must be getting the mix right.”

Part of this spirit of innovation and design was realized when the company took a look at it-self and decided that it needed to upgrade some aspects of its design process. “Six years ago we got involved with the New Zealand Government’s ‘Better By Design’ program, and that program was about integrating design into our processes. At the time we had very good engineer-ing capabilities, but by bring-ing in industrial design into the mix, it has really increased our


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designs’ innovative momentum. We have been on this journey for 6 years now, and it has really helped the business project itself nationally and internationally.”

Some of the earliest research they conducted on design flow gave the company the guiding principle behind all of its cre-ations: Simple, Smart, and Hu-man. What this means, explains Moller, is that customers want-ed “products that were very easy to use, elegant and take into ac-count human factors such as er-gonomics. They didn’t have time for extensive training on a prod-uct. It has got to be intuitive. That’s our key to addressing this and everything we design has to pass that filter.”

A catalogue of successSome of this success can be seen by how Moller and Howard Wright have approached selling the products. “The main thing we aim to do is just to get people to try our products. Once they do, they always seem to find the experience enjoyable. It’s a bit like using an iPod, people really like using them because they are simple and nice to use. That’s the experience that we want our us-ers to have. Getting people to use our products through an evalu-ation process has been the best way gain success in this market.”

“We really focus on the Austral-asia market, outside of that there

is one product that has done very well in Japan, Europe and North America. It’s our special-ised product for showering and bathing people,” this is called the Pacific Shower Bathing Trol-ley. “It’s quite unique in its de-sign, and with its success we are looking to expand our range of global niche products.”

“One of the things we aim for is creating something that is user friendly, with the M8 and the Bathing Trolley we have found great success in developing something that is technologi-cally advanced, but has almost no learning curve. Caregivers can literally take one look at the products and intuitively know how to operate them, to me this


is a great success,” says Moller.

With the aging population, says Moller, Howard Wright has found a few particular-ly important issues that they have addressed like no one else has. “We are getting more and more people who are in need of healthcare. Their fragility is also increasing. Along with this you have to consider that the aver-age age of the work force is also increasing, as are the weights of the patients. You have older staff moving heavier patients, or patients with greater frailness. That creates extra pressure, so if you can reduce the amount of bed transfers, while maintain-ing patient comfort and wellbe-ing which is making patient care easier. That’s what we define as

our business: Making human care easier. When we do this we are finding people are recovering more quickly.” The quicker the recovery, he says, the more bang for the buck healthcare institu-tions get.

Using the M8 as an example, Moller describes only some of its functions. “You can X-ray the patient on the bed, you can use an image intensifier on the bed – you don’t have to transfer the patients. The bed also will go into a full cardiac chair po-sition, and it’s also very easy to use with very little training of staff required. That in itself is a huge savings for hospitals. All of those things save money, and we are working on all those ele-ments all the time.”

“We realize that the healthcare dollar has come under pressure, so anything that healthcare sup-pliers like us can do to ease that- it is something we do,” he reiterates their motto of Simple, Smart and Human¸ saying that “we want to minimize the amount of times caregivers have to shift a patient, because that’s time and money.”

For the near future, Moller and Howard Wright have plans to continue to grow in their home markets, and making more spe-cialized products for the rest of the world. In five years, says Moller they have the goal to be at least twice their operating size. “The need for healthcare devices is not going to disappear, it is not a discretionary spend,” says Moller with confidence.


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“The company’s genesis was the development of a prod-uct that met the specific need of reducing entrapment injuries in long term care patients,” says Tony Christmas, CEO of The LiftCare Bed Company. “Conventional hospital and aged care beds have rails that contain the patient in the bed. These are necessary to ensure the safety of the patients but are also the cause of many inju-ries. Many patients, especially elderly patients, become disorientated and agitated at night,” says Christmas. “They try to get out of their bed increasing significantly their risk of injury. Back in the early 1980s, a Director of Nursing at one of Melbourne’s nursing homes experi-mented with floor level beds,” he says that this was the germination of the seed that became LiftCare.

A little bit of history“I like to believe that LiftCare is an Australian success story that not a lot of people know about,” says Christ-mas. “Back in 1983, the Director of Nursing at St Anne’s Nursing Home in Hawthorn, Victoria, Sister Elaine Barclay-Abbott, became very concerned about the way confused and elderly patients were restrained in their beds – especially at night,” he relates. Some pa-tients would try to get out of their high hospital beds at night and injure themselves. Sr. Barclay-Abbott experi-enced the concerns that LiftCare now addresses with its products.


“One of the patients at Haw-thorn was seen as particularly problematic, often throwing themselves around in the bed at night. Worrying for the safety of their patient, the Sister and her colleagues removed the legs from the patient’s bed, with the hope that this would change the patients sleeping habits,” says Christmas. What they noticed was the patient was much more compliant and suffered fewer issues and injuries. Other beds were modified with similar re-sults and with whole- hearted enthusiasm from the patient’s relatives and doctors. The disad-vantage of these modifications was the nurses could not get to the patient as easily. Height ad-justable beds were available on

the market at the time, but none of the offerings went down to floor level.

“The Sister was introduced to George Winston, the founder of Technical Aid for the Disabled (TAD),” says Christmas. TAD was a not-for-profit organisa-tion which lent their expertise to the disabled in the hopes of improving their overall quality of life. TAD looked at the prob-lem and began to design, while concurrently conducting mar-ket research on the feasibility of a floor-level bed and its applica-tions. “They came to the conclu-sion that there was a need for a bed that allowed a patient to sleep close to the floor at night, but could be raised to a height

during the day to allow nursing staff to attend to the patient.” They later were able to success-fully obtain a grant and began developing the first floor level bed. They then applied for a pat-ent that made sure the idea was secure.

TAD was a design house only, so they had to find a company qualified to manufacture the bed. “No manufacturers any-where in the world were build-ing floor level beds at the time. So many of the companies that were approached said that it was not within their capability,” says Christmas. The one company that was able to build the work-ing prototype suffered financial-ly and went into receivership.


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Barry McCrimon and Allen Clarke, two gentlemen that saw the advantage of the design, were intrigued by the idea and were able to continue to work on the floor-level bed after buy-ing the design from the original company. In 1994 they formed a company called Gerontic and General Products and produced the first floor-level bed in 1995. After that they were able to de-velop the idea even further, and in 1997 they launched the Mark III bed.

The company began trading as The LiftCare Bed Company and was acquired by Barton Medical in 2005, and eventually Human Care in 2008. By 2009 LiftCare was selling their products all over the world including New Zealand, Canada, the US, Eu-

rope and the Middle East.

Speciality needs, speciality careSince their humble beginnings LiftCare has gone further than offering a single product for a single niche need, by expand-ing their offerings to meet the needs of several specialised mar-kets. LiftCare now sells a range of floor level beds, patient lifters, ceiling hoists and aids for daily living products to help improve the lives of people in care. The company is also helping Bariat-ric patients and now markets the Barton Bariatric Bed and Barton Bariatric Chair in their range.

As an addition to Aged Care, the Protean 4 was developed specifically to break into the

hospital market taking the con-cept of floor level nursing to a broader market... This marked an exciting new market for Lift-Care, and it has already proven to be very successful. “The Pro-tean 4 is a floor level bed that can be used as a general hospi-tal bed. WA Public Hospitals, the Royal Melbourne Hospital, and a number of other hospitals in Australia and the world have been buying the Protean 4s,” says Christmas. A new version of the bed, called the P 5 Premi-um, was released this February and looks to pick up on the suc-cessful road that the P4 has pre-pared. LiftCare’s P5 Premium Hospital Bed is a complete care management system.

“I believe this is something we should be very proud of,” Christ-


mas told his team recently. “We have people all over the world being cared for on our beds. It’s not just happening in Mel-bourne or Victoria, it is happen-ing globally. We recently sold a large number beds into Canada, and then right after the initial sale we won a contract in Can-ada for our P5 Premium Hospi-tal Bed. In January, our WA dis-tributor purchased their 1000th bed.”

Christmas believes that every hospital and aged care facility should know at least some of the history of LiftCare and the con-tribution that the company has made to patient care. He would like the opportunity to show each facility the LiftCare range of products and let them see for themselves the ease-of-use and the design of their products. An-other initiative that Christmas is perusing is educating the health-care industry on what exactly a floor level bed can do for both their patients and their staff. “It doesn’t just protect the patient from injury, it is a whole nursing

system,” he says. The ease of use of their prod-ucts, and little touches- like un-der bed lighting, available on the new P5 Premium hospital bed, has made the beds a hit with many healthcare workers. Christmas says that LiftCare is always looking at ways to de-velop and introduce new and innovative products to im-prove patient outcomes and the working conditions of our customers. “Austra-lia started the concept of floor-level nursing, we de-veloped it, and LiftCare - through its gen-esis – was the first com-pany in the market and we are one of the lead-ers today. We will stay in this m a r k e t and con-tinue to d e ve l op in this

market,” says Christmas. “Any customer who buys one of our products is buying our heritage and our experience. They are also getting with that the peace of mind that we at LiftCare are going to continue to innovate and develop new products to suit their specific needs.”


Ellex Medical Lasers Limited is one of the most innova-

tive companies that Australia has ever seen. Laser technology has moved a long way, and Ellex has been there since almost the beginning. First established in 1985 as a division of Quentron Optics, Ellex has grown into a world player of its own. Op-erating for over 25 years Ellex manufactures and sells its own complete line of photodisrup-

tors, photocoagulators, SLT sys-tems and ultrasound systems for diagnosing and treating cataract, retina and glaucoma conditions. Much of the technology that El-lex uses is based on developments in the defense field; and by locat-ing their operations in Adelaide they have been able to take “ad-vantage of the state’s reputation as a ‘defense technology hotspot’ to develop our products,” says Si-mon Luscombe, Ellex’s CEO.

Ellex became a publicly-listed company in 2001 and has spent the past few years concentrating on developing their offerings. “We had a fairly big 25th year campaign that focused on all our operations here and around the world. We have a number of subsidiaries around the world in places like Japan, US, Germany and Europe,” he says. Their man-ufacturing site is in Australia, but they also have a separate in-


ternational sales and marketing office located here as well.

“We were very early on the scene,” says Luscombe, “we be-gan manufacturing out of the defense industry, so bits of our technology come from defense. That’s where it all started.” Lus-combe says that Ellex was an early adopter of ophthalmic laser technology, and was one of the first companies to start manu-

facturing lasers in the mid-1980s for medical use.

With over 120 employees in the Adelaide facility; the Company also operates a machine shop which produces components for use in the manufacture of Ellex products, as well as for sale to non-Ellex customers. Operat-ing in markets worldwide, Ellex prides itself in providing the best and most innovative machines

for laser eye surgery. In 2006 Ellex moved into the ophthal-mic diagnostic arena with the acquisition of US-based Inno-vative Imaging which provided them the opportunity to further expand their international pres-ence in the ophthalmic diagnos-tics market.

One of their greatest successes has come from a surprising place. Germany has traditionally been


serviced by Zeiss, but Luscombe says that they have been doing re-markably well there. “We are do-ing remarkably well in Germany and beating Zeiss at their own game. I think this says some-

thing about Australian technol-ogy,” comments Luscombe.

With lasers designed for spe-cific purposes, Ellex has created a catalogue of vision solutions.

Luscombe says that one of the important things that they are doing is developing treatments and machines that will actually prevent blindness in adults. This comes in the form of the new


generation laser that Luscombe says “doesn’t damage anything, but acts on the retina to rejuve-nate its function. It makes sure that the disease process cannot progress.” This is the Ellex 2RT

(Ellex Retinal Regeneration Therapy); and is a new therapy for the treatment of Age-Related Macular Degeneration (AMD), the leading cause of blindness in the developed world.

In all Ellex has devoted itself to help us all see better and lon-ger, and continues to develop its product range with the hope that one day we can all see as clearly as possible.

Products

Photodisruption Used to treat secondary cataracts, and Ellex is the #1 provider of these in the world. They supply over half the market with their Ultra Q™ and Super Q® models.

Photocoagulation Used to treat vision loss related to diabetes. This product line includes the Integre Duo™, Integre® and Soli-taire™.

SLT PhotoregenerationUsed in treating glaucoma by trig-gering the body’s natural regenera-tion process. Product line includes the Tango™ and Solo™ SLT. SLT does not harm the eye and has no side effects, which allows earlier treatment.

ImagingThe Ellex Eye Cubed™ allows for Ophthalmologists to see detailed anatomic structures in both the an-terior and posterior segments of the eye.


The Retirement Village Association of Australia is the national body that represents national retirement vil-

lage developers, owners, operators, managers and industry specialists. With over 750 members, it has seen a steady increase in membership at a rate of 20 per cent in the past two years.

Emerging communities “Retirement villages began to appear 1970’s and 80s”, says Andrew Giles, CEO of the RVA. “A retirement vil-lage essentially can be defined as a housing development designed specifically to cater to the needs and lifestyles of people aged 65 and over,” he says.

“Most residents of these villages enter into them in their 70s as part of a move to downsize, decrease maintenance responsibilities, experience a greater sense of safety and se-curity, or for health and lifestyle reasons,” says Mr Giles, adding that “not only has this lifestyle shift been of ben-efit to residents, but it has also freed up residential hous-ing for younger families, stimulated the local economy and reduced the pressure on aged care, and medical infrastruc-ture.”

According to Mr Giles one of the great successes of the industry is that it reduces demand on local services for se-niors but remains a unique and innovative model with an emphasis on lifestyle.

In Australia today the industry represents over 1,850 vil-lages and communities that are supported by both the pri-vate sector and non-profit organisations. These communi-ties house and support more than 160,000 people over the age of 65 who report very high levels of satisfaction with their experiences in a village.


Andrew Giles (Chief Executive Officer)

Andrew brings with him first-hand knowledge of the retire-ment village industry through his previous roles.

Andrew began his career in a consulting firm mainly working with local government in planning community infrastructure. He also worked in local government before starting a consult-ing practice, which operated for over six years.

In 2004 he joined MacroPlan Australia, one of Australia’s lead-ing economics and town planning consultancies, ultimately as the Victorian State Director. During that time he worked on some of Australia’s most significant property projects including demographic and socio economic profiling of Australia’s ageing population

The stronger the RVA becomes by adding to its membership, the more easily it can represent the industry with a united voice. This has become more impor-tant in the past 10 years because Australia is becoming a more regulated and legislated environ-ment.

This transition has not happened over night, and the resulting state legislative environments, first designed to protect clients of retirement villages can, if not carefully implemented, nega-tively impact the viability of the industry as a whole. This in turn may limit future investment in housing for older people in Aus-tralia. “The industry is highly regulated, which brings with it great security for residents, but often higher costs for develop-ers,” says Mr Giles.

Mr Giles stresses this, saying that “returns in the sector are often lower than other tradi-tional forms of property, and these returns are achieved over longer timeframes. As such, any significant change to legislation can have significant cascading impacts to the industry. This is occurring at a time the Govern-ment is committed to cutting red tape and exploring harmoni-sation across states. For this reason, a strong industry asso-ciation that can work with and inform Government is critical. This is a fundamental role for the RVA to show leadership for the industry.”


The returns may not be immedi-ately recognisable, but what can be said is that through support-ing retirement villages and care facilities there is quite a positive effect on the economy. “The sec-tor is a major contributor to the national economy and as the industry grows it will become more economically significant,” he says.

“The construction and mainte-nance expenditure for the indus-try alone means there is more than $18 billion of direct and indirect expenditure (NPV over 20 years) to Australia’s econo-my. In addition, the industry generates some $3 billion ser-vice related [expenditures], with multipliers into smaller regional

economies in many cases,” says Mr Giles, pointing to another indisputable positive effect- sim-ply put: the industry creates much needed jobs. “Industry growth could see the delivery of some 35,000 jobs per annum - direct and indirect employment. It is critical for the RVA to con-tinue to reinforce this message to Government and the broader community.”

What the RVA does for its membersThe role of the RVA is not only to work with the government agencies, but to represent the industry to ensure environments that a consumer would desire to live in. “The RVA’s core role is

to unify and represent the in-dustry to ensure its continued growth and responding to Aus-tralia’s massive future housing need for older people,” says Mr Giles. This goes deeper than it would appear because the in-dustry has faced new demands in recent years. The first is the increased demand for services in an environment where access to debt and equity to fund growth is challenging.

A second issue is that retirees have higher expectations for the level of accommodation and care than ever before. This is costly to deliver, not only because of their expectations but due to the high standards that the industry holds itself to. This means that


businesses that the RVA repre-sents have to manage their costs very carefully. Affordability, says Mr Giles is a “driver of choice for people and retirement villages continue to represent choice in living options for people over 65.”

So where can they get additional funding? “There is also great op-portunity for the private sector, church and charitable groups and Government to work to fa-cilitate models of choice in re-tirement living, including rental and/or new financial options to meet the diverse needs of the consumer.”

Why people are Choosing Retirement Villages“What is clear is that people enjoy living in retirement villages. More than 95 per cent of residents indi-cate village life meets or exceeds their expectations,” says Mr Giles pointing out that there are “key reasons people choose a village”. Choice, he says, is an important part of what Retirement Villages in Australia represent. “Unlike a move into residential aged care, which is usually predicated by a sudden decline in health or es-calation of a neurodegenerative disorder, it is important to note that consumers choose to live in a retirement village and generally view this choice as a way of en-hancing their quality of life.”

Mr Giles says that among these factors are security and support.


Australians are living longer than ever before, and the older the in-dividual the more health issues they are likely to experience. “As people age and health needs in-crease, the great lifestyle offer, down-sizing the requirement for maintenance of property and grounds, being able to ‘lock and leave’ for travelling and social in-teractions with likeminded and

similar aged people,” becomes very important.

For the present and the future, Mr Giles says that “the RVA is committed to informing and educating Australians about why retirement villages are great places to live and will seek out opportunities to spread the word.”


Masonry has its origins in the building trade and

is one of the oldest “unions” of workers. Masonic Homes has its roots with the charitable branch of this organization, who have well known interest and have been great supporters of so-cial welfare initiatives. With a marked increase in the number the Australian population that is over the age of 65, retirement and extended care communi-ties have become increasingly important. Doug Strain, CEO of Masonic Homes is very inter-

ested in providing the care best possible care, improvement of the standard of living, and clear-ing up some of the most com-mon misunderstandings that the industry currently suffers from. Founded in the early 60s, when “aged care” was relatively a new invention, Strain says that they have moved much beyond their original function integrat-ing new services, and initiatives, but maintaining close ties with roots. These roots are especially important to Strain, when his father, who was a Mason, passed

when he was a child, the Masons made sure that they were well taken care of.

Marketing the old fashioned waySome of the greatest advocates that Masonic Homes has are its own residents. The fact that they often provide some of the most compelling accolades for the retirement community is in itself a great success for Ma-sonic Homes. “Word-of-mouth is critically important to retire-


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ment villages, who is our great-est advocates? Our own resi-dents. It is some of the best sort of ‘old fashioned’ social media out there.” Strain says they don’t actively try to market the vil-lage, instead spreading the word about their services though the best marketers around- their residents.

Working with the RVA to change how people see an industryA member of the RVA (Retire-ment Village Association) they are committed to increasing the level of awareness of the services that retirement villages pro-vide for, as well as working with stakeholders to improve the

level of care that they can pro-vide. Working with the RVA, Strain hopes that many of the issues that the retirement vil-lage industry can be addressed, mostly through education. “We work with the RVA in order to improve the standing of retire-ment villages. They allow for the integration and collaboration

on the wider issues of retirement villages. They are widely misun-derstood in the communities, government, and the popula-tion at large. One of the issues we face is that the industry is still rather fragmented, what we have to do is work on the is-sue of brand retirement villages. We came to work with the RVA


around these core issues, and es-pecially educating the market,” Strain says it is particularly im-portant that while working with the RVA they educated to pub-lic to what “retirement villages and what they aren’t.” Collabo-ration, he says, is the key.

“I think education is the answer to all things, I think if everyone was informed that we won’t have some of the hurt we have going on right now. I think in the is-sue of advocacy is important for older people because right now, although many of the baby boomers may look back and be able to say ‘look we changed the world’ right now they are cre-ating a lot of the impediments that have stopped us from going forward,” a boomer himself he does not pull any punches when discussing his generation. Strain credits Gen X and Y as the new agents of change that are hitting the wall of conservatism pro-duced by the once liberal boom-ers.


Facing an aging population

Although it is predicted that many Western countries will be faced with a large popula-tion over the age of 65 in the next 15 years, Strain says they are more concerned at looking after the needs of “the boomer’s parents. I would contend that the retirement village product, as it operates under the various retirement village acts is not at-tractive to a 65 year old. It is a situation that people, who are retiring younger, better off, and in better health- we are looking at a generation that is expected to live for another generation

ahead of them. So right now we are getting two generations in retirement.” The boomer’s par-ents are who they have aimed their services to. He character-izes potential clients as about 85 years of age, still living in their own home and still healthy for the most part. “The huge spike that we are seeing right now is in older ages, and that’s the area we are dealing with right now,” he says. There are people that are younger, but we are looking at service integrated housing

When minor health issues be-gin to arise, the parents often feel like they are putting pres-sure on their children. “It’s not

that the children don’t want to care for their parents, the par-ents have lived a long time on their own and they do not want to have their kids having to take care of them- showering them, toileting them. They like their independence, and what we are saying is that retirement villages are something that they seem to find very attractive.” Strain says that many people move into re-tirement villages, not because they find their houses and live unmanageable, but because they have found that their lives have gotten “smaller”. With less to worry about, they often come to Masonic Homes with an eye to down size, and still remain part


of a community and mobile.

Like many individuals in the industry, Strain knows that an increase in the life expectancy, though one that means that peo-ple are also living longer more fulfilling lives, also means that health problems that were once rare can now become more and more common place. “Everyone is saying that by 2020 Alzheim-er’s and dementia will be a major issue, I think that a lot of this has to do with people living lon-ger. It’s like prostate cancer, I am sure that there were just as many incidences of it 20 years ago, but often people would pass before the cancer would become termi-

nal.” By employing specialists, and encouraging educational institutions to train healthcare workers coming out of the sys-tem on how to deal with people afflicted with the conditions.

“I think that we need to de-velop a defensive approach, it is not like that everyone will get either disease, but we have to de-velop preventative methods. We do this now by keeping people mentally and physically active. We focus on using subtle trig-gers that aid with people’s mem-ories. That is what retirement villages, and Masonic Homes, are about: supporting people,” he says. One trend he has seen

is people self-diagnosing them-selves as having dementia, when in fact they have just become forgetful. There are things that happen to us all when we age. Everyone is treated as an indi-vidual at Masonic Homes, and they have avoided taking a “one size fits all” method of organiz-ing programs. In fact they look at a multiplicity of activates that residents can get involved in. One of the options that Strain says is both a good idea, and an indication of our lengthening lifespans is the “Man Shed”. He says that this is not the cure all for retirement living, but inter-est in it shows something far more important. “Some blokes’


love the idea of the man shed, but what I really think is impor-tant is that we have enough men to run programs like this. Old blokes are a fairly new inven-tion,” he jokes. “We operate on a diverse offering, each person is an individual, and each village that we operate has its own indi-vidual sense about it.”

Operations“We operate about 1000 retire-ment units South Australia in the Northern Territory. 400 beds in nursing homes, and about 300 in-home care packages. We operate with something called ‘hub-sites’. A retirement village

might have 200 units on it; we then look to settle a satellite vil-lage 5 to 8 kilometres away from the hub,” he says describing their operations. These satellite vil-lages have about 40 residences in them, and have a connection to the main hub site. A larger network of care expands even farther than that, maintaining care for individuals who choose to remain in their own homes. “We want to actively grow these networks and are currently look-ing at opportunities to expand into the other adjoining states.” Strain predicts that in the next 2 or 3 years they will be operating in other states and creating a na-tional footprint. One of the great

features of all their operations is that they create them within al-ready existing communities. “We have found that a lot of people are coming back to where they had grown up,” says Strain. “They then reconnect with the commu-nity that they grew up in.”

All of Masonic Homes’ villages are run like little cities, he jokes that the operating directories are actually town councils. When issues about roads, streetlights, walking paths, and even fire hydrants are raised, Masonic Homes administers the solu-tions. “We become the council services, so it really is a village, community and township in its


own right.”

All of the villages are located close to medical faculties, retail shopping, entertainment, and transport. “The concept of the retirement village as being on the urban fringe is just not sus-tainable. Just as important to an older person as a medical fa-cility is retail, and commercial operations. Going to see a movie or being able to walk through a mall is a good thing,” says Strain. “We don’t gate our communities, we see them as active part of the larger community; so we don’t think that a retirement commu-nity is somewhere where you lock the residents behind a gate,”

he says that one of the best things that he can see is that the mem-bers of the villages they manage are involved in their surround-ing communities. “We like to see them volunteering in the local hospitals, or being involved in a school or library. We think these are all fantastic things.” This goes both ways, says Strain, they also hope that the communities they operate in them see that they are a great place to volunteer as well.

With 600 staff who are prin-cipally employed in their care operations, they select their em-ployees carefully. “The issue of values is important; we have to make sure we have people work-

ing with us who empathize with older people. Among the best qualifications we look for is their ability to treat our residents with dignity and respect. Creativity and integrity are also something we look for.”

“In Darwin we are the only op-erator of retirement villages in the Northern Territories. “We are one of the largest of Darwin’s non-Government employers. In fact we are the largest builder of housing outside of the govern-ment and the mining industry,” he says try to give a clear picture of just how large their opera-tions are right now. For the fu-ture, Strain says they are going


to concentrate on expansion of both services and geographic spread. Also in the near future the plan on developing a greater variety in their product offer-ings reflect Strain’s belief that there is no one cure for all the individual needs of Masonic Homes’ residents. “For housing we build one bedroom one level houses, to high-rises and every-

thing between. We are looking at building more high-rises,” he says.

He may not think that they are innovators, but his concern for the quality of life of the older generation is truly admirable. The growth of Masonic Homes from a charity that he person-ally respects is something that

is very marked in the everyday operations of the villages, and the way that residents are treat-ed. When any of us are faced with the choice of moving into a retirement village, I think that many can take comfort in the fact that there are people out there like Doug Strain, and places like Masonic Homes that we can count on.


Since 1990, Country Club Villages has been operating

in Victoria and has now expand-ed into Queensland. They are a premier provider of retirement lifestyle accommodations and programs in both geographic locations. Currently, they have over 700 residents and are op-erating at capacity, and are one of the leading national managers and developers of retirement liv-ing residences. Right now their portfolio consists of over 200 separate units, and is still con-stantly expanding their offerings to meet the unprecedented de-mands that are place on this par-ticular industry. They operate with the idea that each person has earned the right to a worry free retirement, and they are working towards creating that

said environment. By offering a wide variety of living options in various locations, Country Club Villages plans to continue their expansion to meet today’s and tomorrow’s needs for the retire-ment industry.

“CCV presently has a portfo-lio of 10 Retirement Villages at various stages in their life cycle. It provides distinguished qual-ity retirement living for in ex-cess of 700 residents, with its mature RVs close to fully occu-pied. CCV’s management team has a strong track record of op-erational excellence and quality service delivery to residents at its villages,” says Stewart Gull, one of the Directors of Country Club Villages. “Country Club Village’s impressive record of

continuous RV development is forecast to continue, with the current known development pipeline predicted to deliver 1,303 new units/apartments,” he says. “Given its attractive mix of mature villages and the size of its development pipeline, CCV represents one of the most sig-nificant and valuable privately owned Retirement Village port-folios in Australia.”

Stewart Gull laid the first block that was to become Country Club Villages when he founded Rosebank Retirement Village Pty Ltd in 1991. After investi-gating potential sites for retire-ment villages, and then joining the Retirement Village Associa-tion of Victoria, he commenced construction of the Charlotte


Street site in Sebastopol near Ballarat in 1993. In 1996 Gull became aware that the Lutheran Church, who had been experi-encing difficulty over the pre-ceding years to further develop their Geelong Grove retirement village beyond its existing 22 units, was interested in selling. After careful analysis of the busi-ness prospects of the property, Gull entered into an agreement to purchase Geelong Grove.

“Country Club Villages was formed at the time of the Gee-long Grove acquisition, I ac-quired the village in partnership with interests associated with Jim Selkirk. At this time, Rose-bank was retained outside the Country Club Village partner-

ship,” says Gull. Over the follow-ing years, CCV acquired sites at Hemsley Park, Noosa Domain, Melba Vale, Bellbrook Gardens, Bellarine Lakes, Meadow Gar-dens and Hampton Views, and continued to develop Geelong

Grove.

Gull is a licensed estate agent and Director of CCV who pro-vides guidance to the business. He also has extensive experience in the Retirement Village sector,


and has many other successful business enterprises, including real estate, commercial and in-dustrial property, manufactur-ing, land sub-division and a substantial farm enterprise. The other directors of Country Club Villages are Jim Selkirk and Paul Burke. Country Club Villages’ portfolio consists over 2000 units, with further expansion and acquisitions planned in the near future.

The market for Retirement Villages is extremely strong in Australia, and the entire world. With the world’s demographics of individuals looking to grow at

twice the rate of the total popu-lation, and “by 2050 it is expect-ed that the proportion of popu-lation aged over 65 will nearly double to 25 per cent, with the proportion of people aged over 85 expected to nearly quadruple to 5 per cent,” says Gull. That said, interest in the industry has increased by almost the same factors. “The Retirement Village market penetration in Australia is expected to increase signifi-cantly, consistent with experi-ences in more mature overseas markets,” says Gull. “Following a period of softening discount rates, the attractive investment characteristics of RV assets pres-

ent a particularly strong case for long term investment,” he re-ports.

“CCV has one of the most sig-nificant and valuable RV devel-opment pipelines in Australia which, when combined with its existing portfolio of completed units, positions it as one of the largest privately owned for profit RV players in Australia and one of the few remaining privately owned RV portfolios of scale,” says Gull, he also says that the development pipeline has been significantly de-risked as a result of the following factors:• All ten sites are owned by CCV


• All sites have received all plan-ning and development approv-als;• CCV adopts a staged devel-opment approach with exter-nal fixed cost building arrange-ments; • All community facilities are constructed during Stage 1; and• Unit construction is either completed or has commenced at eight of the ten villages, with the remaining two expected to begin in the 2010 calendar year

“With its track record in suc-cessfully developing Geelong Grove, Rosebank and Hemsley Park, CCV’s development pipe-

line is forecast to deliver 989 new Independent Living Units (ILUs),” and, says Gull, an ad-ditional 314 other units are also on the books. “The majority of units are expected to be con-structed within the next seven years. A significant step up in ILU construction is expected in the 2011/12 year as devel-opment at Bellarine Lakes and Hampton Views commences. This step up is also underpinned by existing deposits and holds.” Country Club Villages has enjoyed some of its success be-cause it refuses to do anything small. When they are presented with a potential site, they go all

in. “CCVs focus on larger sites where between 150 and 350 units and apartments can be de-veloped, this has ensured that the portfolio does not contain any smaller inefficient villages where services fees are insuffi-cient to maintain CCVs supe-rior standards,” says Gull.

These standards are implement-ed across the board and come from years of experience in the market. They have standardised their building practices and de-veloped their designs with what works best in mind. “Country Club Villages have taken a stan-dardised approach to develop-


ment, such as similar floor plans across the board, and similar communal facilities,” says Gull. “The construction process is much more streamlined in re-cent times with the introduction of concrete panels for ILU’s,” he says pointing to some of the ad-vantages they have enjoyed in the current marketplace. “Vil-lages have state of the art irriga-tion systems and communica-tion and media infrastructure.”

The irrigation system is some-

thing they developed in order to be more water conscientious, saving the environment and their operational costs at the same time. “Country Club Vil-lages have implemented water saving measures such as state of the art self-watering irrigation systems from strategically placed dams; also the implementation of artificial lawns has greatly de-creased water usage throughout the villages,” he says.

Country Club Villages gives

residents the perfect setting to let them intermingle and enjoy each other’s similar interests. There are many organized ac-tivities that allow residents to enjoy the full gamut of services that are offered, but at the same time respecting their wish for privacy, letting them choose their own level of participation. Country Club Villages strongly supports the over 55’s life style and endeavours to make it easy for them to stay healthy and ac-tive in doing so.


Maroba was founded by the Islington Baptist Church when three members of the church raised the funds necessary by mortgaging their own homes. The first build-

ing was a converted maternity cottage in an industrial suburb of Newcastle that the church ministered to. By the 1960s they required more space and a more modern building. By ob-taining a grant of land – Aged Care Reserve – in Waratah they were able to accomplish this, and continued the momentum by developing their Hostel in 1992 and retirement village in 1999 by opening their 23 villas. Maroba Living Communities has continued to meet the demand of the market and exceed the expectations of their residents.

“At the moment we care for a hundred residents in our high care facility, which we would call full nursing care. There are 55 residents living in our ‘low care’ or ‘supported living’ facility. We also have 23 villas within our community. This is all part of the same campus in Waratah,” says Viv Allanson, CEO of Maroba. Allanson has worked in the health sector her entire career, but moved into the Aged Care in 1992 and to Maroba in 1994. She was ap-pointed to the role of CEO in 2000 and has brought a long list of qualifications and health related insights to Maroba.

“Location, Location, Location” The village is situated in a prime location that is close to the city, harbour, hospitals, univer-sity, and train stations. “It’s one of those things that prove how valuable ‘location,’ really is,”


Viv AllansonCEO


says Allanson. With this ideal situation they are taking ad-vantage of a vacant plot of land made available by the demoli-tion of the old nursing home. “We are planning to build 47 apartments on this land which will be devoted to self-care,” she says. According to Allanson most of the development in the last few years in the industry has been focused on replacing and upgrading older buildings. “There is a mix of development going on. What I have found through research and keeping an eye on the industry is that there just isn’t enough retire-ment living building stock in Australia. We know the need in our area is very great- right now we have 160 people waiting for 23 villas. We also have 60 people

who have indicated they would like one of the 47 units that we are going to build,” she says, ex-plaining the demand that has been placed on the aged-care industry.

It is clear that the need for their services and housing is there, with their proximity to the city and its amenities they have be-come an extremely attractive option for people looking for retirement living housing and care. Out of all the other co-lo-cated aged-care and retirement villages in the Newcastle area, says Allanson, Maroba is the closest to the city’s comforts. “We also have the interesting dynamic of being situated in a long established and long stand-ing community,” she points out.


This means for residents that the city’s infrastructure has long been in place and that the com-munity is stable. All these fac-tors makes the services and the accommodations that Maroba offers begin to feel like a true home very quickly.

It isn’t all about long established traditions, says Allanson, with the 47 unit apartment complex that is in the works Maroba will be breaking new ground in the retirement village indus-try for the area. “It will be the first vertical retirement village in Newcastle.” The new build-ing will have 7 levels including the basement. “Quite a num-ber of the larger cities already have these. In Sydney these are quite common, but here we have mostly traditional 1 and 2 story buildings,” she says. Verti-cal is the only way to go for this site, says Allanson. Many other retirement villages may be able to measure their coverage by the square kilometre because of their relative distance from cit-ies, but with Maroba they are

very close to the centre of the population making expansion only possible in one direction – up. While building these new projects they are also looking at green technologies and ways to keep the power flowing. Solar technology could possibly be used to offset some of the ener-gy costs, while generators have already been installed to guar-antee that energy will power their facilities without interrup-tion. With brownouts becom-ing more common, this is par-ticularly important to residents.

What makes this generation of retirees differentExpectations of what retirement living means to potential resi-dents has changed over the last 50-years that Maroba has oper-ated. “The finical situation that people find themselves in upon entering a retirement commu-nity is one of the biggest things that has changed recently. This has also changed the dynamic

of what we have been able to deliver,” says Allanson. Many of the construction projects devel-oped in the industry have used bonds to maximize the rate of expansion. “There are waiting lists across the whole the sector, pushing up demand,” she says. Retirees, coming out of the fi-nancial crisis are in a far better position than their parents’ gen-eration had been. “Even though their savings where knocked around a fair bit by the finan-cial markets, they are pretty well off.”

Much of the funding for the higher-care individuals comes from the government, but one of their major concerns is that with funding structures in place that only allow them to charge below the market cost of their services, demand for their ser-vices might continue to exceed their ability to supply it.

“Superannuation is the big thing we are seeing now,” says Director of Finance and Corporate Ser-vices, Chris Boyce. “That didn’t


exist before, but people who are coming through now might not have a traditional pension but they do have a higher level of as-sets. That means they can afford better accommodations than in the past. Back then, there would have been only a small percentage of people who could have done that.”

“The number one attraction that we have counted on to entice residents is our reputa-tion,” says Allanson. “The sec-ond would be the quality and contemporary nature of our buildings, and the third - the location. We are so well located in a city, where most others you have a 40 minutes’ drive out to where there are limited servic-es.” Boyce thinks that the more important thing is that “all the levels of care are provided on the one site. This means that if they need additional care after moving into a villa or apartment on the campus, it is not a huge transition.”Location and services both speak to a common subject: po-

tential residents have higher ex-pectations, and are “savvy about what they should be getting,” says Allanson. She says that part of the “Australian dream,” is to remain in a single home for their entire lives, but when this becomes inconvenient, or they wish to down size, hav-ing a place they can call their own becomes just as important. “Often parents want to stay at home for a number of reasons, they are comfortable where they are. However as soon as they see they might be starting to be-come a burden to their children they begin to look at their op-tions.”

Some of the services that both Allanson and Boyce are ex-cited about are their organized events, sport and gaming com-petitions and of course their “Men’s Shed”. They have an an-nual shuffleboard competition, where the winner gets to bring home an award. “Its’ great seeing them so focused on winning,” says Allanson. “It is part of hu-man nature to compete and it’s

great to see that spirit in people in this stage of their lives.” The ‘Men’s Shed’ she says allows tinkerers and workshop enthu-siasts to continue their projects and take courses to improve their skills, under guidance and supervision.

Historically, and even today, the founders, and directors have all been members of the Islington Baptist Church. When asked what has guided Maroba Living Communities over the years Al-lanson is quick to point to their mission statement, saying that “Maroba is a dynamic Christ focussed organisation provid-ing an exciting range of accom-modation, care, and services to older citizens.”

According to Allanson the mis-sion that Maroba is trying to fulfil, and the one that they were founded on comes right from the Book of Mark: “Love your neighbour as yourself: that’s what Maroba was founded on and that’s what Maroba contin-ues to build on.”


Michael Fallon, the Managing Director of Live Life, begins his description of Live Life Villages observing the fact

that they are a bit unique, a different flavour, and are very happy to be in that position.

To best discuss what they do Michael included some of the significant members of their manage-ment team to provide a more robust understand-ing of their operations. He feels that the role that Kaye Smyth has, as Retirement Living Manager, in the running of the day to day business of the villages offers a unique perspective, equally as the involvement of Kent Fallon as the Development Manager and manager for both their Greenfield and Brownfield sites.

“We are a small Queensland based private opera-tor of retirement villages,” says Michael. “Brook-land, the oldest village we operate, is just over 25 years old, and in our present form Live Life Vil-lages has only been in place for 5 or 6 years.” Prior to Michael’s involvement the Brookland village was operated by the National Seniors Association.

“They originally started it in Queensland 25 years ago and eventually decided that they wanted to fo-cus on broader membership issues rather than con-tinuing an involvement in the Retirement Village area. At that time I had been Company Secretary to the Village operator, and I found the opportu-nity to match some private investment with their desire to exit the business,” says Michael.

Live Life Villages has adopted the Queensland Bottle Tree for their logo as a symbol of their uniqueness, and the pride they take in doing things differently, more efficiently, through both the

good times and bad. “Our choice of logo was de-liberately chosen as it is unique to Queensland and it has an amazing sustainability system contained in it which allows it to resilient through drought


and hard times, and then flour-ish in the good times. It really describes what we are about,” says Michael, but the definition comes from the whole team, each voicing what they think is important about this symbol. To add to this unique feature, Australian Living Legend Dawn Fraser AO, MBE is Live Life Village Ambassador and a very active member of the team who promotes our philosophy of the independent active lifestyle within both our villages and the wider community.

The VillagesBrookland Village as seen to-day was completed in 1994, and boasts 125 units, but now op-erates under the Live Life ban-ner. The Village is located in the southern suburbs; a short dis-

tance from Brisbane’s CBD and has the advantage of a generous green space within the village. There is ongoing refurbishment of the units and the village as a whole, in line with a master plan established in conjunction with leading Queensland architects, Riddle Architecture. Council development approval is already in place to redevelop the centre of the site with the addition of 90 units in a medium height apartment complex. “The cur-rent design is the traditional villa type village, and we are looking at replacing the central section, including the community centre to provide additional accom-modation and facilities within a multi-level building. This will allow us have more than 200 live-in units, without losing the benefits of the current green space” says Michael.

Brookland Village was followed by the second village of Samford Grove located at in Brisbane’s outer north-west suburbs, but still within the city limits. This is a relatively new development with 27 units constructed so far. “On the site of the present vil-lage we are looking to expand it to about 106 units, and there maybe an extension on an ad-joining block that will take that number up to 135 units,” he says. The goal is to maintain the character of the village, and de-velop the additional residential properties as independent living housing.

Maleny Grove, Live Life’s most recently created village, is lo-cated on the Blackall Range in Sunshine Coast hinterland and is designed in keeping with the environmental features of the


area. “We actually have two parcels of land on which the re-tirement village will ultimately be. The first had already been approved for retirement village development for 45 units, plus a community centre,” he says. The land adjacent to, Live Life’s Greenfield site has been zoned for a residential subdivision, but application has been sought for rezoning to accommodate their plans for a second stage of their Maleny Grove development. This will allow them to extend the scope of the development to approximately 150 living units.

The idea that built a village“The philosophy of Live Life Village’s is probably a bit dif-

ferent from other offerings out there,” says Michael. “Our dif-ference is that we tend to have slight more land component per unit in our villages. For example, Brookland has the lowest den-sity of units of villages in south-east Queensland providing larg-er green spaces for residents to enjoy.” He says this low popula-tion, large open spaces applies to all of their developments and de-velopment plans. “Maleny, when finished, will only have slightly less than 25 per cent coverage of the land, and major preservation efforts will be exercised to main-tain green tracts.” Michael states that these are villages that are not at the connoisseur end, nor at the affordable housing retire-ment model, but a very happy place between the two.

“I see that there are three differ-ent segments in the retirement village market; one is what I describe as concierge type of village, where they offer every-thing, like a piano bar and the rest. At the other end is afford-able housing, and we are in the middle occupying what we call the boutique type housing,” says Michael.

He says that one of the things that they have to face every day is the public perception of what aged care is verses the reality of what retirement villages are. “Our villages are not aged care but rather independent living units with supported services options for active lifestyle re-tirees”. Michael says that this is where they differ from the

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common perception. We pro-vide independent living homes and communities and provide residents with the opportunity to take advantage of the Com-monwealth funding for Aging in Place. We promote initiative by providing support services as the resident may need them,” he explains.

Retirees often enter villages with a desire to unburden themselves of some of the responsibilities of upkeep and maintenance that living in large family homes often requires. With these re-sponsibilities removed, this of-ten frees them to pursue a more active but relaxed retirement lifestyle and enjoy the benefits of the facilities provided within the village. “It also gives them

more sense of community and opportunities for social inter-action. Those are the main fo-cuses of the early stages.” Later, he points out, concerns for their continued health may become apparent. The support servic-es available to them can range from unit cleaning, meal cater-ing, personal and medication administration support.

Supporting our residentsKaye Smyth adds that with medication support they do not dispense the medication; rather Care Facilitators monitors the medication intake. “Our team goes further in general, we pro-vide support for the physical, as well as the personal aspect.

Our Care Facilitators monitor, support, and provide these ad-ditional services to residents as required to allow them to age in place; maintaining their inde-pendence for an extended period of time,” she said. “It is our belief that most people will be able to age in place in their retirement village home for the remainder of their lives. We do not see the same degree of need for people to move to aged care as was the case 20 years ago.” She adds that there are exceptions for this and says that advanced Dementia, Alzheimer’s, and extreme mo-bility needs will, of course, re-quire specialised aged care that they cannot provide. “Even pal-liative care can co-ordinate by us should our residents’ require this service,” she says.


“One of the important technologies that they have implemented to make sure that their residents can contact the 24 hour personal emergency services that Live Life provides is the INS LifeGuard sys-tem. This system can alert staff to situations from falls to tap left running”, says Kent Fallon.

“We have implemented this technology in all of our new build and villages. We are also looking at ways to expand this service to include mobile phones and other devices in home, but right now, what INS provides for us is very important of our operations,” he says. “The personal emergency call button allows us to monitor residents while they are in their units and at locations around the vil-lage. In time, this will be expanded to when resi-dents are out in the broader community.”

Kent says that Live Life are actively working with INS to identify how they can expand this service and develop new ones for their residents. He gives one example of how it is already used as a very smart non-intrusive way in order to passively keep


an eye on their resident’s safety. “Utilising the INS technology that is built into our Maleny units, there is a switch on our hot water tanks that acts as a timer. If the hot water is run-ning for more than 20 minutes, it will send off a signal to the emergency response system and a phone call is placed to the resi-dents to see if they are in need of assistance,” says Kent. He says that resident falls are more like-ly in the bathroom, so systems like this is potentially lifesaving. He also believes this unitive is

important as it cuts down the possibility of having to do spot checks and thus maintains the dignity and privacy of the resi-dents in the villages.

The changing face of retirementMany things have noticeably changed with the make-up of the ageing community, both Kaye and Michael said. While people 20 or 30 years could work in one industry for their whole work-ing life and then retire at 65,

they are now finding two things. Firstly, a couple of decades ago, post retirement, life continued expectancy was on average just 10 years, but now people could be looking at active living for another 20 or 30 years. The sec-ond change noted is people re-tiring before they really want to preferring to continue to remain in the workforce. Both predict that the mandatory retirement age will be raised in the near fu-ture. This means that the retire-ment accommodation industry was developed “for people who


lived a few years beyond the av-erage life expectancy,” and was not devoted to long term active living the way that Live Life Vil-lages is.

“The life expectancy and the life style expectations of people over 65 has shifted dramati-cally over recent times. This is an evolution that we celebrate. At Brookland we have a 15 resi-dent who are members of the Over-90’s-Club, and it’s great.” They also point to a study con-ducted in the United States that

has shown that living in a retire-ment village could even possibly extend the average person’s life by an additional five years. In the past men‘s life expectan-cy was not as high as women, but as the general population’s health improved so did their life expectancy improved. Men are now embracing retirement village lifestyle in record num-bers and the industry is adapt-ing. Kaye Smyth says that there are a couple of noticeable trends appearing. Single men entering the retirement communities are describing it as “man heaven” because they are still a bit of a minority commodity. The other is that males sometimes have a bit more difficulty participat-ing in group activities. “Men are less adapted to socialising than women, so we cater to their in-terests as well. For example, we had two gentlemen who were very interested in aeroplanes, and we were able to link them up together so they could share their common interest. We found almost immediately that

they started more functions and were more socially engaged,” says Kaye.

For the near future, Live Life Villages plan to grow the busi-ness but maintain its boutique qualities. “In the next five years I can see us operating a num-ber of additional villages with an average of 150 to 200 units in each village,” says Michael. “We already have our next vil-lage site in place – and this again is strategically positioned as more of a boutique inner city village.” Michael sees that there are still plenty of opportunities to expand in Queensland, and believes that Live Life Villages has a lot to offer the retirement community there. Their mes-sage is certainly appealing. “Our aim is to respect the dignity of the resident by allowing them to maintain an independent life-style with support where need-ed from us. We do this in an environment that promotes an active, Queensland retirement lifestyle and an opportunity to Live Life.”


TerraNova Homes & Care have one of the most unique aged care groups in New Zealand. Within the Auckland Region they have res-

idential care facilities called West Harbour Gardens, Jervois, Warrengate, and Papatoetoe. In Taupo they operate out of Monte Vista; in Hawke’s Bay out of Brittany House; and in Lower Hutt out of Riverleigh. One of the advantages if having all these locations under one operation is that staff can freely move from one area to the other, and shortages can be quickly rectified. This also allows residents to have mini-vacations to oth-er locations operated under the umbrella of TerraNova Homes & Care.

Focusing on CareJanet Cohen, CEO of TerraNova Homes & Care, has worked within health industry in Australia for over 30 years. She has applied her exper-tise and knowledge to developing TerraNova as a leading provider of aged care in New Zealand. “We like to think of ourselves as a health care pro-vider, we don’t operate villages or independent living accommodations so our core business is aged health care. For us that means making life better for older people. Quite often when people come in older age care they re-ally think it’s the end of the line for them, and are often very depressed,” she says. “We like to offer them a new lease on life, so we are very commit-ted to not only optimising their healthcare so that they can enjoy life, but also providing them activities for them to do to make the most of life.”

Individual Care, Individual TastesTheir strategy is two tiered; the first part of it is that they offer special-ized food services. TerraNova has just had all of their menus changed by a well-known national chef that offers not overly complex dinner choices but great home style cooking. This required a complete retraining of their staff, but it has been received among the residents well.

Presentation of food has been an important change in the dining room as well; Cohen believes that part of what is appetising about a meal is how it looks on a plate. “It should be presented in a manner that tanta-lizes the taste buds,” she says, but stresses that it should not be over the top. The reason for this is that the elderly often want to have traditional home cooked style meals rather than then something extravagant. Find-ing the exactly right food hasn’t always been easy says Cohen, people have


different tastes. So, finding the right balance between nutrition and taste, and then taking into account the individual tastes of their clients they have prepared a menu that should leave every-one happy and looking forward to dinner.

Improving Lives by Granting Wishes

Enhancing life style is the other important strategy that they are working very hard on. One of the programs that is covered under the Life Enhancement Programme, one Cohen is very excited about, is called the Wish-ing Tree. “It was an initiative that was originally developed by

our Hastings facility, Brittany House. The Wishing Tree won the New Zealand Health Care Providers Excellence in Care “Innovative Delivery Award” in 2007. All our facilities have now adopted it. It takes dedication from their staff to make this hap-pen,” and Cohen likes to point it out as an example of their dedi-cation. “The Wishing Tree works when a resident says that they would like to go whale watch-ing at Kaikoura, as an example,” says Cohen. “They hang their wish on the tree, the staff then do fund raising activities around it and when they raise the funds they can then send someone off to go whale watching.” They have had numerous requests, from the simple ones like sending a couple

back to the place they got en-gaged, to people who want to go tandem sky diving. Cohen says that this shows a zeal for life that even surprises her, but gives her much heart. One of the ones she remembers best is two elderly women (75 and 92 years of age) decided they wanted to go sky-diving, something she would al-most certainly does not want to do herself. “I get nervous enough at ground level, I couldn’t imag-ine doing that, but they did!” Cohen chuckles.

As stated before, the wishing tree program has gained industry rec-ognition and applause with sev-eral other companies have taken TerraNova’s lead and adopted similar programs themselves. In


this case imitation is truly the greatest form of flattery. This has also provided staff and volun-teers a great focus for fund rais-ing activities. She sees each wish granted as a testament to the ded-ication of their staff, and finds it hard to even say which wish was the most “heart rending”. “Each wish is equally important, and it’s hard for me to pick one that touched me more than another,” says Cohen.

Listening to Their ResidentConstant feedback from both residents and staff has allowed them to stream line their process and provide the best care pos-sible. Using a balanced score card system they are able to rate risks

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their residents and react quickly with a solid process in place. This process identifies where there is the risk of potential adverse event occurring through a series of key performance indicators. The bal-anced score guides the manage-ment decisions and enables the rapid correction of potentially unsafe situations from eventuat-ing. “When a facility is deemed to be at risk, we have a pathway which allows quick steps to take that will mitigate the potential of an adverse event. For example if someone falls often, a special care pathway and observations will be applied to that individual,” says Cohen. Her greatest desire is to maintain every person’s dignity and independence so TerraNova takes that into account with ev-ery action.

Thinking Small and Making a Big ImpactCohen says they maintain the mindset of a small corporate with a big heart, and this, over all, allows them to treat each per-son in their care as an individual. Being treated like an individual is one of the things that TerraNova does best, and it is through this personalized care that they have continued to carve out a name for themselves as the premier care provider for older New Zealand-ers. If everyone had someone like TerraNova looking out for them in their golden years aging would be something you could look forward too.


Barossa Village was established in 1963, and has since its creation been devoted to the aged care of Barossa and the surrounding communities. Their expertise and

professionalism was recognized in 2008 when they received the National Retirement Living Organisation of the Year Award. Located in Australia’s most famous wine re-gions, the Barossa Valley, they offer older Australians some real options in quality of life living and care. Phillip Schmaal, CEO of Barossa Village, took the time to sit down with us and tell us why this is not only a famous tourist stop over, but a great area in which individuals are choosing to spend their golden years.

“Barossa village is a public benevolent institution – a charitable organization that was set up around 50 years ago by the local community,” says Schmaal. The organisation was created to fill a need in the community for quality care and housing for older Austra-lians. As the need grew, so did the organisation. “The village is involved in all aspects of aged care from retirement living through to home care, residential services, and full


time care,” he says. “We are try-ing to become a one stop shop in order to cater to all the people’s needs - from the time they need to downsize, being still indepen-dent, but they need to down size. Be it from a farm or a fam-ily home to something a little bit smaller; through to provid-ing them with care within their own home; through to the point should they need to move into a nursing type home to provide the care they need.” Schmaal describes their approach as a complete solution that is as at-tractive as possible, and one that maintains individual’s freedom while maximizing their quality of life.

A self-described “Barossa Boy”

Schmaal has a particular interest in ensuring that the community has continued support from organisations like Barossa Vil-lage. He spent much of his life travelling across Australia when he was involved in the wine in-dustry, eventually becoming in-volved with the not-for-profit industry. This road eventually led him back home, and in a way reunited him with some of the wines he loves. Schmaal speaks with passion no matter what the topic is, and is always ready with a good wine suggestion.

Regional South Australia, has some of the highest proportion of aging and older individuals. As such the organisation already plays an important role in the

community, but with record numbers of people expected to reach ages over 65 in the next few years, Barossa will become even more vital to the commu-nity. “As such we are certainly on the forefront of seeing the impact of an aging population on our local community. We already have to deal with the increase in demands and expec-tations for the industry,” says Schmaal. “We are just starting tom see an impact from the baby boomers who are coming into that market. Their expectations, of course are very different from their parent’s.” This is a common theme across the world. With a generation that has worked hard and is relatively financially in-dependent from their children,


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they can for almost the first time afford something that is very im-portant to anyone at any stage of their lives – Choice.

“Actively Engaged in Ageing” is Barossa Village’s motto, and of course has more than one mean-ing. To the staff it means that they are engaged with their resi-dents, providing them with the services and care they expect. For the residents, it is a promise that getting old does not mean their lives will be any less active or fulfilling. In fact the programs at Barossa Village are meant to reengage them and provide them the opportunities to lead a more active life style than they would have without support or specific services. “Retirement housing is

no longer what we used to call “God’s waiting room”, what it has become is a place where people can expect and get a full house with a lock up garage, continued access, the extra bed room where grandchildren can stay over,” he says. Among the other amenities are larger rooms garages and car ports that provide for the con-tinuing mobility and activity of seniors.

“Something that we are doing, and this was part of the reason that we got the National Retire-ment Living Organisation of the Year Award for 2008-2009 from our peers in the industry, is that traditionally retirement living has been in large retire-ment villages, but we are seeing

something of a large sea change. People, we have been seeing, still want to be part of a local com-munity, especially when it means staying close to friends and fam-ily. They don’t necessarily want to be fenced off from the com-munity in retirement housing. So what we have been construct-ing and are continuing to build are cluster style retirement cot-tages. So, these are within the local community surrounded by other houses,” Schmaal says that they build them in groups of five or six, but make sure that exist-ing neighbourhoods. “Over the back fence you can hear children playing, you are still very much a part of the local community. It’s this great intergenerational con-nectivity that we are promoting.”


This also allows them to place the accommodations within easy reach of local doctors, shopping and other services. Within their extend care within their units and home care options, Barossa health professionals as well as lo-cal GPs make the rounds provid-ing personalised care and regu-lar check-ups. Meals and home maintenance are also provided, and any issues or required sup-port is only a phone call away. Each unit in their retirement vil-lages has a direct line to Barossa’s on duty support staff. With over 100 full time equivalent staff members, including registered nurses, hospitality staff, admin-istration, and even contractors who are there especially to care for individuals staying in their own homes. With in-home sup-port, staff responsibilities can run the gamut of simply helping with the house work, to cleaning the gutters, to more advanced care when they require assis-tance in showering and eating.

These are regular visits, Schmaal explains, and they can count on the staff working there.

Activities are an important part of life at Barossa Village, and Schmaal is very excited at the opportunities that they can pro-vide their residents. The Tinker’s Shed is one of Schmaal’s favou-rites, but they provide a full range of activities catered to the inter-ests of their residents. Being in wine country it would be remiss

not to mention that with every meal residents have the choice to get either their favourite beer, or one of the fine vintages available in from the Barossa Valley.

In all, Schmaal says that they work hard to create a place where the needs of their residents are met, and their expectations ex-ceeded. So far, with praise from their peers and residents it would seem they are meeting their own lofty goals.


Arcadia Waters Retirement Villages are not your or-

dinary retirement communi-ties. This is because its founder Roger Kwok created these com-munities with his own family in mind, and the concerns and hopes that only a family can gen-erate. Although they did not live to see its completion they would surely be proud of the work their son has done in providing great locations and vibrant culture for retirees. This Perth centric group of villages aims to provide its residents with the look, feel, and lifestyles that people would expect from resort living, rather

than your regular retirement village. Although there are no official monuments to his par-ents, Roger Kwok, says that ev-ery resident knows the story of the formation of Arcadia Waters Retirement Villages. They have about 300 residents at their vil-lages, and Kwok makes it a point to meet and know all of them. He feels it is important if they want to provide individual care and service.

“We used to visit my parents on a fairly regular basis once every two or three weeks,” he says. “The occasion arose that both

of my parents became danger-ously sick. My wife and I were not aware of it, and being older people they didn’t want to tell anyone. So when we went to vis-it them we found out how sick they were and they were hospi-talized and we nearly lost them,” says Kwok. This was the germi-nation of a thought, the very first seed was planted. Kwok began to look for retirement villages that could supply exactly what he expected from them. To his dismay, it was a fruitless search. “We realized that we cannot af-ford to leave elderly people on their own,” says Kwok. He also


saw that though people like his parents might be older, they still had a right to enjoy life and be as active as possible.

Kwok approached this asking himself when do people en-joy life the most? The answer seemed obvious to him: When on holidays. “I wanted to create something that was much more like a resort than a retirement village,” he says. “So I wanted something that people could feel like they are on holiday ev-ery day of the year. And that is the idea that Arcadia Waters was born from.”

Kwok regrets that the place he built for his parents was not completed by the time that they passed, but he knows they

would have been very proud of his accomplishment, and would have loved to live in the commu-nities Kwok helped form. “We have never looked back ever since, because we still run the place with the same philosophy. Every one of the residents is very close to us, and we look at their welfare as part of enjoying life. The whole structure is geared towards making their stay as en-joyable as we can,” he says.

The project that became Ar-cadia Waters was founded in 1999, and officially opened the doors of its first village in 2000. Kwok may have been operating the communities for almost 12 years, but he still sees himself as the new guy in the industry. This means that he and Arcadia are

looking at their operations with completely new eyes, and taking a completely new approach.

Retirement Living - Living the resort lifeSome aspects the business fo-cuses on are still very traditional, says Kwok. They recognize that people who are looking for a re-tirement village are trying to find a way to maximize their enjoy-ment of life, while shedding some of their responsibilities. The best way that retirees can accomplish this is by off-loading some of the responsibilities that they have, one of these responsibilities is having a house or living arrange-ment that is just too large for their present lifestyles. Arcadia Waters gives them an alternative.


Kwok knows that home owner-ship is very important, so that they still will have a place to call their own, but what they gain is the support of a group of people working for them to make ev-eryday chores and house hold work a thing of the past.

“People that move in here all have different needs, some want to be able to lock up their homes and go on holidays, of course, others want the safety and secu-rity that comes with living in the villages we operate.” This comes back to the individual care and service that Arcadia Waters of-fers.

Arcadia Waters Retirement Vil-lages have been designed specifi-cally to address this, and Kwok is very happy with the results. There are many things that sep-

arate them from the rest of the herd and one of them is that their managers are not just 9 to 5 employees. “Our managers actu-ally all live on the site. They live here and they work here, and they enjoy many of the activities that we offer along with the resi-dents,” he says. “Our managers are every bit a part of the com-munity as the residents are.”

Three locations, three distinct feelsWith three locations at Mad-dington, Geraldton, and Port Denison, each community is as distinct as the area it operates in.

The Maddington village is locat-ed on the banks of the Canning River, only 30 minutes from the centre of Perth. It has one of the best shopping plazas in the area

just across the road, and quick access to both public transpor-tation and medical facilities.

Their Geraldton location is mod-elled after the success they had with the first village in Mad-dington on the very popular and award winning Arcadia Waters Retirement Village in Madding-ton. Opened in 2009, it has easy access to many of the attractions the Batavia Coast offers, includ-ing beaches and the Marina.

The Port Denison community is located on the Irwin River near Dongara and is about 360km north of Perth and 70km south of Geraldton. It boasts a stunning costal landscape and has been de-signed around making easy access to some of the most picturesque foreshores and fishing boat har-bours in Western Australia.


What Retirement MeansTaking the idea of a resort, rather than a retirement village, a step further Kwok and the team at Arcadia Waters have turned the community centre into more of a club house. “About ten years ago we started this idea of a club house,” he says. The ‘club house’ as he describes it has a full com-mercial restaurant, including a chef and specialized menus for functions that are held up to three times a week. Inside the ‘club house’ there is a café that is fully staffed by volunteering resi-dents. Kwok says that they can keep prices low because of this community spirit. “You can come

in at any time and order a cap-puccino and a piece of cake, and its only $4,” says Kwok. “There is a community committee running it, and every year they make a sur-plus, and every year they take that surplus and contribute it back into improving the facilities in the village.”

Expansion into new marketsArcadia Waters Retirement Vil-lages has also seen some great possibilities presenting them-selves in Asia. Having recently observed that the retirees in Asia are grossly under serviced, Kwok says that plans are on the table to expand their services into this

market. The number of retirees in Asia is much higher than it is in Australia, he explains, and thus provides a market waiting to be tapped. He thinks that the mod-el that he developed here could be transported, and with some changes be very successful there.

“We have built a place where the participation of the resi-dents matters a lot. We believe that people do not come to our retirement villages to vegetate, the come here to enjoy life,” says Kwok. From the smiling faces of their residents, it looks like Kwok and Arcadia have succeeded in making their version of retire-ment living more than agreeable, it’s a holiday.


Marco De Pasquale co-Director of Oak Tree Group says that every stage of their project has been carefully selected. Even their name was arrived at after much debate and care-

ful thought. He, himself comes from a marketing and advertising background, which after he started his own family, found to be a lifestyle much more suited to the unattached. He began looking at other opportunities, and the idea of creating retirement villages that were affordable and appealing was hit upon. “We looked particularly at the affordable end of retirement living, we saw an opportunity in the market. We saw that a lot of the retirement living products were really targeted to middle class Australia in terms of price point, but De Pasquale says that they did not want to name it after a particular region, or a family, because they always intended to expand. And expand they have.


Finding the right name“We came up with name Oak Tree a number of years ago when we were first looking at the de-velopment of the company,” he explains. “It was one of my first assignments that I got, and com-ing from the advertising busi-ness I looked at what we wanted to offer and thought this idea is very interesting, but what do we call it?” Looking at other exam-ples, he noticed that many other companies relied on imagery of life, community living and vital-ity. After doing his research, he came across the Eden Principles. “The Eden Principles talk about some of the issues that arise when you age – namely loneli-ness and helplessness. One of the things that they put forward was the idea that there should be some connection to a cata-

lyst, something that means life itself. Things like plants, and animal life. Something people need to be around,” says De Pasquale. Coupling that with the idea that they were not go-ing to be one of those big insti-tutions, focused on paperwork, he came to the name of the Oak Tree. De Pasquale sees the Oak Tree as a symbol of continu-ance, life and wisdom. He be-lieves that this imagery helps potential residents immediately understand what they are all about, and helps them focus on their own philosophy of care. “It also lets them know that this is an institution they can trust, so with the two ideas I think it came together well.“ He also thinks that a lot of what Oak Tree stands for can be found in their mission statements, these, he says, are not just clever mar-keting but guiding principles

that they strive to achieve. “As community providers, Oak Tree is an innovative team dedicated to understanding and attending to the needs of our seniors. We consciously endeavour to sup-port and nurture our residents by providing affordable liv-ing environments and support structures which contribute to happy, healthy and independent retirements.”

Affordable retirementDe Pasquale describes that one of their advantages and one of the reasons that they have had such success is that they are Australia’s leading provider of affordable retirement living. He stresses the affordable part. “What you have to understand is that what we offer is more of a boutique style organisa-

Completed villa Oak Tree Goodna


Warwick display villa


tion, and this is not about the price point, but the size. If you look at an average sized village they are about 150 units, ev-eryone markets them in a dif-ferent way.” De Pasquale says that their villas are made up of 50-80 separate units, and it is through this fact that Oak Tree Group is able to maintain a really homey feeling. This has also allowed them to expand their services into several vil-lages, rather than a few. These Villages are located all over Australia. In Queensland they

are represented by Goodna, Boronia Heights, Cairns, Yep-poon, Park Avenue, and War-wick. Victoria has Skye, and Tasmania has Kingston. New South Wales boasts villages in Cardiff, Orange Armidale, and Inverell.

“The size we keep them in lets a real feeling of community be formed as well as letting them be more cost effective and man-ageable,” the amount of resen-tences they have spread out over a wide area of land presents its

own challenges, he says, “But we are pretty well travelled, and have a great head office struc-ture, people, and technology today makes this job easier.” Be-ing able to break down the bar-riers of distance has allowed them to maintain the size that they feel comfortable with. He does not dismiss the possibility of opening larger villages in the future, in fact he says that some with 100 units are already on the books. “What we find with this size is that it really appeals to some people, some of them

Director Marco De Pasquale Director Mark Bindon


Cairns Construction stage 2


have come from the larger vil-lages, and they want something with just a little bit more of a community feel to it,” says De Pasquale.

Making communities, working with communities and lending a handWith the recent flood, they have first made sure their residents are safe, and they are also looking at ways to reach out to the commu-nity. In the past they were able to offer temporary housing to people during the fires in Vic-toria, but this year their ability

to help those in need has been limited because of their success. “We just don’t have the available product this year; the last 18 months have been very busy for us in terms of sales. We just don’t have the room to offer.” What they have done, is put together an appeal to residents, staff and family. “What we have done is create a charitable fund, this fund has gone to Alzheimer’s and other causes before, and the company will match dollar for dollar any funds donated into it.” Not only do they build com-munities- but they build com-munities within communities.

Success in the planOne of the major influences on

their success has been their idea of what retirement living means to those considering one of their villages. De Pasquale says that maintaining a real com-munity feel is one of the impor-tant features, the other is creat-ing a feeling of independence. Though there may be health concerns and issues of safety, Oak Tree Group strives to allow every individual resident the ability and resources to main-tain themselves in the lifestyle of their choosing. It is through these aspects that Oak Tree and De Pasquale have successfully created environments that the everyday Australian can afford, and enjoy living at in their re-tirement years.


St. Luke’s Care was founded in 1919 when a small pri-vate hospital opened in

a modest home known as Tre-bartha, in Potts Point. This was organised by a small community group who raised money locally. “The first hospital had about 10 or 12 beds. Several years later, the community group was able

to raise further funds to build a larger hospital adjacent to the first”, says Mark Compton, CEO of St Luke’s Care. “That hospital was opened in 1927 and is still largely the same building that stands on the main campus now.” Although there was an original alignment with the Church of England, the hospital, aged care,

home care and retirement liv-ing activities of St Luke’s Care are now independent from any religious organisation. “The name comes from St Luke, the patron saint of physicians,” says Compton. The distinction is important to him, and he stress-es that it is a community based not-for-profit organisation open


to all. “It is not a church owned or operated hospital, it is a com-munity owned and community run facility with its own private board and committees. In part it is supported by the St Luke’s Hospital Foundation, a charita-ble foundation that raises funds to provide invaluable support to St Luke’s Care” he says.

Integration of methods and services “St Luke’s Care encompasses acute hospital services, residen-tial aged care, home care and retirement living. Right now we have about 700 staff members, and we care for about five to six hundred people a day,” says

Compton. He sees the organ-isation is “somewhat unique” and jokes that there are always degrees of actual uniqueness, but the mixing of functional hospital care with aged care and retirement community living is so well integrated it’s not some-thing you come across often. “The hospital here at Potts Point


Services:

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• Eyesurgery

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is just fantastic,” says Compton, “it is a very competent surgi-cal, medical and rehabilitation hospital. It has had consider-able funds spent on it in the last three to four years – not only on refurbishment to make it look good – which it does, it’s a beau-tiful hospital - but the technol-ogy backbone of the entire hos-pital has also been upgraded.” Digital technology has been a special focus in this, including Stryker i-Suites and an invest-ment in the central sterilisation department within the hospital making it state of the art – just to name a few.

“On top of all the services we offer, we also have a large re-habilitation centre,” continues

Compton. Patients who have had recent joint replacement surgery or other extensive sur-gery can take advantage of their excellent rehabilitation centre which includes a state of the art hydrotherapy unit. “But the thing that really makes the place is the incredible staff here; it’s a great privilege work-ing with such a caring and pro-fessional group every day.” St Luke’s patients have also attest-ed to this - their glowing recom-mendations for the hospital are well known among staff and the community at large.

“Our home care operation also runs from here, and the Trebar-tha apartments are also located on our Potts Point/Elizabeth

Bay campus,” says Compton. St Luke’s has a second campus at Little Bay that has 70 retire-ment apartments. “At this time there are only 10 of those left for sale.” He says demand for them is so high because the area is so appealing. “They’re surrounded by parklands and lovely coastal views– it’s just beautiful. And only 20 mins from the Sydney CBD,” says Compton. St Luke’s Care highly values its community relationships that have been carefully built over 92 years. Its principal objective is to meet changing community needs in health and aged care. In doing so, St Luke’s contin-ues to offer the best quality care with the unique personal touch it has become known for.

Mark Compton


Bonney Healthcare Group represents three aged care facilities in South Australia. The groups motto is “Where people matter.”

Paul Bonney, Director of Bonney Healthcare Group, says that this applies to both patients and the staff caring for them.

A history of careThe company began in 1988 with the purchase of Gloucester Nurs-ing Home under the name of the Endew Pty Ltd., which was later sold in 1993. The next company was the Pakary Pty which acted as the trustee company for The Bonney Family Trust. It is through this Trust that the Bonney Healthcare Group was able to make the acquisitions that now make up their corporate holdings. The Fa-cilities they operate are located at Hahndorf, Klemzig and Christies Beach in South Australia.

On February 22nd, 2007 the Group became registered as the Bon-ney Healthcare Group (BHG). “BHG employs approximately 350 staff and has 285 high care beds and enjoys an unblemished track record with The Commonwealth Department of Health and Age-ing and the residents and relatives that we look after. We have always enjoyed a high reputation for providing excellent care to our resi-dents within our community,” says Bonney.

Paul Bonney has a long history of professionalism, from Grammar School straight through to today. “I finished a law Degree in 1981 at The University Of Adelaide, I went on to do my articles in a well-established legal firm in Adelaide, after some time there I decided to enter into the family business of aged care and from my appoint-ment as Administrator in May 1983, at the family owned Christies


Beach Nursing Home as it was known then,” he recounts. After entering the industry he says he learned much about the day to day operations that are required in an aged care facility and has

now been involved in the indus-try for over 28 years.

Over these 28 years, he has seen many changes in the mar-ket environment, with both its

challenges and improvements. “Some of the industry trends revolve around the issues of vi-ability and sustainability within an environment which restricts our capacity to raise capital via


bonds in high care or uncap-ping of the accommodation charges to allow for users to pay according to their means,” he says. Bonney hopes that law and policy will also realise some of

the changes in population and aged care and adjust legislation accordingly. “Some of the chal-lenges in operating High Care Residential Facilities revolve around viability as I have previ-

ously mentioned within a fund-ing environment that is too rigid and doesn’t currently allow consumers the choice to pay for a higher standard of accommo-dation if they so choose,” he ex-plains.

Change in the air“We are entering a period of sig-nificant change, the Productiv-ity Commission has just recent-ly released its draft report into aged care. The most contentious of which is the deregulation of bed licences,” Bonney senses this trend will continue, giv-ing patients more control over their healthcare. “Should the Government take up this rec-ommendation it will certainly create a much more competitive environment for Providers of aged care to meet the demands of their consumers. Other rec-ommendations included the uncapping of accommodation charges and the possible intro-duction of bonds in high care. These measures would to a large extent put more control in the hands of the consumer as to where they would choose to spend their money and would increase their level of choice of accommodation.”

The technology of knowingHe also points to the digitisa-tion of medical information as something that is creating a real sea change in the industry. Before, paper was king, and it often took more time to receive


medical information. Now, with digital health records, he sees the real opportunity for improvement in both transmis-sion times and accuracy. Both of these aspects can play a very important role in patient care and their health. “A couple of years ago we went onto Leec-are Solutions, which is an elec-tronic software solution system for our resident documenta-tion and care planning require-ments,” Bonney thinks this is an important innovation because it has significantly improved their quality of data manage-ment and time efficiencies for their staff members. “Also our management team use a Vir-tual Primary Network (VPN) system which allows access to some management team mem-bers to the data of all three sites from any location,” VPNs have become a very common prac-tice in many industries for those who wish to share sensitive data. Their security prevents sensitive and confidential information, like medical records, from being seen by any anyone who they are not intended for. Technology has also allowed them to imple-ment safety measures based on carefully kept records. “For saf-er systems we use an integrated call bell management software system which identifies times when residents are most at risk and provides reports of staff re-sponse times to residents’ needs. We can then follow up on this reported data.,” he says. Track-ing these results has become integrated into Bonney Health-care Group’s Quality Assurance

system to identify any risk ar-eas within the sites through the feedback systems, the results of which are freely available to all stakeholders.

Quality service is in the detailsThis information is put to good use, says Bonney. “We have qual-ity systems in place which ongo-ingly identifies continuous im-provement opportunities at our three sites which are addressed and actioned on a monthly ba-sis at our Quality Assurance Committee meetings, which includes all of our Department Heads, Residents and myself as Managing Director.” They also conduct bi-annual Manage-ment Review Meetings with their senior management team and Resident representatives to review and evaluate these quality systems and the busi-ness plan. “We review and seek feedback of all our continuous improvements. We have Ac-tion Plans at our Quality As-surance Meetings which ensure nothing escapes our notice. At these meetings all the continu-ous improvement opportunities are explored in depth and we seek suggestions from all stake-holders such as our residents, staff, relatives, volunteers, allied health professionals and GP’S,” he says.

Getting better all the timePart of their continuous busi-ness strategy is focused on


maintaining their good rela-tions with staff members. “We encourage our staff to actively participate in the continuous improvement processes, we re-spect their input and acknowl-edge their concerns and sug-gestions that can lead to greater improvement for the staff them-selves,” he says. Along with this, they also support free vaccina-tions, which are both important

to the staff ’s health, and the health of their aged care wards. Often older people are more susceptible to viruses and infec-tions than younger individuals are. This vaccination process is a very important step in main-taining the health of people un-der Bonney Healthcare’s charge. They also foster an environment of continuous learning, encour-aging staff to take the next step

in their roles and gain the skill sets they might need. “We re-cently conducted some high performance training for all of our staff which helped develop team leaders amongst our staff members and also identified for them educational pursuits that were previously undetected and potentially unrealised. A high performance organisation fos-ters a passion for outstanding


achievement amongst its people and this culture of excellence is achieved through a sustained focus on empowerment and en-gagement. A high performance organisation achieves long term sustainability measured by productivity and/or finan-cial performance,” says Bonney. Recognising the importance of their staff is also what Bonney Healthcare Group strives to

make apparent. “We have an an-nual Christmas function which brings all staff members from all sites together, and it’s a rec-ognition from the Management Team of their incredible input throughout the year,” says Bon-ney.

“Our company I feel is unique because we place a high empha-sis on the wellbeing of our staff

and our driven customer fo-cus,” says Bonney. “Our motto “where people matter” we do take very seriously indeed. We strive for excellence continuous-ly and we have developed our vision through all stakeholder feedback.” All of this hard work shows, and Bonney Healthcare Group is standing at the ready for anyone who needs their care and support.


Medicines Australia is working hard to represent the needs of the pharmaceutical industry within Australia. They accom-

plish this by taking the simple stand point that the medicines their members create save and improve lives. The pharmaceutical industry is a key industry within Australia, and Medicines Australia is work-ing to bring the concerns and needs to the forefront of the minds of policy makers and stakeholders. The Australian medicines indus-try employs 14,000 people. The industry’s exports totalled $4.1 bil-lion in 2009/10, making it Australia’s most valuable hi-technology exporter. It also attracts more than $1 billion a year to Australia in global research and development investment.

Representing the best in the industry“We represent the innovators or originators in the Australian med-icines industry. We have about 50 members ranging from large pharmaceutical companies, some of which are Australian owned, through to smaller sized companies and medium sized groups,”


Dr Brendan Shaw CEO of Medicines Australia.


says Dr Brendan Shaw, CEO of Medicines Australia. “Some of our members have business in the off-patent market as well.” The members they represent provide about 86 per cent of the prescription medicines avail-able through the Government subsidised Pharmaceutical Ben-efits Scheme. The Association in its present form has been in existence since 2000, officially changing its name from the Aus-tralian Pharmaceutical Manu-facturers Association (APMA) in 2002. “We had been operat-ing under that name for a long period of time, we had decided to restructure the organisation and move it from Sydney to Canberra, and at that time we chose to rename it to reflect the fact we now had a broader pur-pose,” says Dr Shaw.

Speaking for the industry and protecting the best interests of AustraliansOn behalf of their members they take an active role in communi-cating directly with policy mak-ers, as well as connecting with Government departments. “We look at issues around health pol-icy and industry policy, as well as working with regulators. We provide commentary and advo-cacy to the broader community,” says Dr Shaw. They also make themselves available to the me-dia in order to ensure that the industries point of view is well understood.

“We have a Medicines Australia Board which is made up of man-aging directors from our mem-ber companies who are elected by our peers in the industry,” says Dr Shaw. “The Board provides strategic direction on key issues for the industry. Through vari-ous channels members can con-nect though networks and work-ing groups get involved as well.” Medicines Australia also hosts information sessions, meetings, and conferences where they can interface and engage on the top-ics facing the industry today.

One of the important functions that Medicines Australia pre-forms is that they help self-regu-late the industry by having their members adhere to a strict Code of Conduct. This code sets out an industry standard of ethical behaviour, in the marketing and selling of their drugs to the pub-lic and health care practitioners. Particularly significant is their focus on what promotional material they can distribute as well as how they interface with potential clients. “Our Code is a self-regulated code,” says Dr


Shaw. “I think our code is regard-ed as a bench mark and a leader. And not just for our members but people outside the sector. We have developed the code to a point where it is universally well regarded,” he says. “I think it’s one of the toughest codes in the world, and it is certainly the toughest in Australia. It governs the interactions between com-panies and health professionals. It covers things such as not pro-viding gifts, or lavish hospitality. Promotion has to be balanced and accurate.” Dr Shaw says that the code ensures that all of their members conduct themselves in a very ethical manner, one that is aligned with community expec-tations and government regula-tions.

“The industry is a very impor-tant contributor to the econ-omy, both in terms of jobs, exports, and research and devel-opment,” says Dr Shaw. “It also has a role in the broader policy issues that Australia is dealing with. Things like: healthcare re-form, the aging population, and how the Australian economy will develop post-mining boom, as well as how we will increase productivity in the Australian marketplace. All of these issues are places the medicines indus-try has a real contribution to make.” This is a very technical and knowledge dependant in-dustry, and Medicines Australia is the best voice to represent its issues and interests, all the while protecting the consumer and the patient.


iNova Pharmaceuticals is an Australian owned and operated company. They pride them-selves in being a premier healthcare supplier in over 15 countries in which they have devel-oped their offerings to meet the demands of a market that is constantly changing. They do not see themselves as a big player, rather as a medium sized institution that has made innova-tion and powerful marketing tools part of their history and future.

“We are a private equity owned business that came out of the old 3M Pharmaceuticals busi-ness,” says Andrew Howden, the CEO and Managing Director of iNova. “3M sold their pharmaceutical interests in 2006, and split the world up into three: Asia Pacific/Africa, US, and Europe and sold them as separate groups. Two private equity companies in Australia, Archer Capital and Ironbridge Capital, purchased the Asia Pacific/Africa business and cre-ated iNova Pharmaceuticals.”

What they got with the purchase was a number of well-known brands, a factory facility and established businesses across Asia Pacific and South Africa. “We own the rights to all those products throughout Japan, China, Asia, Africa and Australia,” he says.


Meet the CEOAndrew Howden is celebrating his 30th year in the pharmaceu-tical industry, where he worked his way up from sales and mar-keting to his present position as CEO. “A lot of my experience was from working with Astra and AstraZeneca,” he says. “I worked in Australia, but left Australia in the early 1990s to go and work in Singapore for Astra as the head of sales and marketing in South East Asia.” He moved a fair bit, from Eu-rope to work for Quintiles, and then back to SE Asia for Astra-Zeneca in 2002. “AstraZeneca were investing very heavily in China, building our field forces and building a presence there. It was very exciting times. In 2006, I left to work for IMS Health - they offer all the data for the pharma industry - and did that for a few years.” Howden then got the call to come back to Australia and work for iNova as CEO.

The offer was appealing to him after spending so much time working for “the big boys” and learning all he thought he could from them, he thought it was time to try something new. “Be-ing here and working for a pri-vate equity owned company, running your own business is quite stimulating and challeng-ing every day,” he says.

With all the globetrotting that Howden has done he has man-aged only to pick up some Swed-ish, he laments with a laugh. “My

Asian languages are a bit want-ing, I can order a beer in a lot of languages, but that is about it. I may not have picked up the languages but the experiences I have gained have truly enriched my life.”

Making it at home, selling abroad “About 70 per cent of our prod-ucts are manufactured here in Sydney and exported to the rest of the world, the other 30 per cent we in-licence from other Australian manufactures or Eu-ropean companies,” says How-den, making it clear that the majority of what iNova manu-factures they make themselves.

“We have a good mixture of pre-scription and OTC (over the counter), so we are not totally reliant one particular part of the market. Some of the larger pharmaceutical companies are focused on prescription, some only on OTC, where as we are pretty much 50/50 which gives us great balance,” says How-den. For iNova’s prescription side they have products for skin cancers, heart conditions, weight loss, asthma, and pain control. The product range has brands that were carry overs from Riker Laboratories and 3M Pharmaceuticals catalogue, as well as ones developed in-house as new and successful product lines.

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iNova is also tackling one of the most important health issues of our time, obesity and weight management. Most of the preva-lent western diseases can be re-lated to obesity and iNova rec-ognises that by managing body weight the overall health of pa-tients can be improved. As such iNova has concentrated on sup-porting doctors with the most widely used prescription weight loss medication and they are about to launch a new Very Low Calorie Diet which has been de-veloped in-house with the guid-ance of nutritionists and Profes-sors of Nutrition. With added support from websites with diet and exercise programs iNova is committed to helping patients manage their weight and ulti-mately their health.

One of the most interesting of-ferings, and most expensive per shot, is their Dicobalt edetate injection. This is an antidote for cyanide poisoning. When you

think of cyanide poisoning your mind might be thrown into spy novels or Cold War intrigues, but the chemical can be found in everyday things, such as apple

seeds, almonds, bacteria, fungi, cigarette smoke and car exhaust (hydrogen cyanide in the lat-ter two cases). This means that

people can have casual exposure to the toxin over a long period of time, and gradually become con-taminated. This leads to blood toxicity that manifests itself as weakness, and even paralysis. At higher levels, it can cause the feeling of coldness in the blood of the body, blurred vision, and shortness of breath. At lethal levels cyanide completely blocks the body’s ability to process oxy-gen, with death occurring with-in minutes of exposure.

“The product itself comes from the US, and very little is manu-factured, but we always have to make sure we have a few. When we are carrying that sort of prod-uct you have to make sure there is someone there ready to take an order 24 hours a day 7 days a week. This is important because someone could want this in the middle of the night in Perth, and need it very quickly. It is a very unique product,” says How-den.


10

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“On the OTC side we have prod-ucts that originally came out of the 3M stable, but were original-ly developed right here in Aus-tralia. The DURO-TUSS cough range, and the Difflam throat products are very well known in the market. We are particularly proud of these because they are number one in their categories,” he says. “In the cough segment for in pharmacy purchases, DURO-TUSS is the number one selling product. These days if you go into any pharmacy in Australia and you have a cough you will be more likely to be rec-ommended DURO-TUSS than anything else.” This stands in testament to iNova’s marketing strategy, Howden and his team

has focused on working closely with pharmacists and doctors, and making sure that their brand is well understood.

Brand name power

To maintain their image as a true medicine, even an OTC one, they have avoided putting their products in general super-markets and corner stores. “This gives us a lot more support at the pharmacy level, but also gives us a different position in the mar-ket as a medicinal, professional brand,” says Howden. The Dif-flam products have also main-tained themselves as the premier product in their category as well, using much the same strategy.

“Even though Strepsils is a big name, we win in the pharmacy,” he says and this makes iNova very proud, not only because it is their product, but it is an Aus-tralian one that holds this place.

Along with the cough and cold medications iNova offers al-lergy relief products, urinary tract medications, supplements, and topical pain relief gels and creams. “Across the board we have a fairly balanced portfo-lio, with many products in the top three of their categories. We don’t market products that are going to be number seven in the market – we make sure they are going to be in the top three,” Howden says. He also says that


iNova stays away from some of the categories that the “big boys play in” because he knows that they just don’t have the market clout, money, or resources to compete against them.

Their customer base has been developed through directly interfacing with doctors and pharmacists. In Africa, Asia and Australia they work with their clients to make sure their prod-ucts meet their needs and are affordable to them. This also means that their products end up having professional recom-mendations.

Getting bigger, staying ahead“Part of our strategy is going to be geographic expansion. Australia is extremely good for us- it is half of our business, but Asia, as everyone understands is a much larger market and a larg-er opportunity for us. So a lot of our expansion plans are focused on Asia.” Since Howden had so much experience in the region-al markets in Asia, he was the perfect fit for iNova’s business expansion plans. “We would have liked to more in Asia so far, but the opportunities in Australia and Africa have been high on our agenda and tied up a lot of our resources. What we have done is tidied up the op-erations of the Asian business to be more profitable, so a big play into China is next on the agenda,” he says. “We have al-

ways been pretty focussed in developing our marketing pro-cess, and for a current launch in Australia we increased our field force size this year. This is something we do to make sure that our sales and marketing can compete with the big boys so that we can get our products out to patients and doctors,” says Howden. “We have prod-ucts we are developing in house with our own internal R & D team,” he says, stressing the im-portance of continuous innova-tion in the product pipeline.

“Our scientists are always look-ing at new product develop-ment as well as how to improve our current portfolio. Half of our products that we launch come out of our own research, the other half comes from our in-licence brands,” says How-den.

By owning most of their own manufacturing process they are also able to streamline the pro-cess with a minimal amount of bureaucracy, allowing each individual to make decisions. “For the last four years we have also upgraded the factory and put in new machinery to make us more efficient,” he says. “This has changed a lot over the last few decades, efficiency in man-ufacturing has moved to be a higher priority than it was 20 or 30 years ago.” This is important if they want to maintain their market share with the growing trend of outsourcing.


Investing in the iNova name“Globally the industry has been going through changes over the last few years, with a lot of medications coming off patent and being genericised, and that is going to have a big impact on the market. The industry, how-ever, has proven to be resilient for hundreds of years and will still stay there,” says Howden. “As an industry we will continue to provide for patients and the patients’ needs. The industry has never been more focused on finding new ways to treat diseas-es we have not been able to treat for so long.”

Because the patents are expir-ing in major markets, compa-nies, large and small, have new impetus to innovate. “Some treatments of cancers that were perilously neglected have been re-examined now that the in-dustry has realised that there is a good return to be had, which is great news for patients,” he says. They are also refocusing on heart conditions and weight control, both of which are emerging as very strong product categories, and ones that iNova already has strong contenders in.

“Our reaction to the GFC was to invest more in sales and mar-keting, because our belief was that if we did that during that difficult period, when the mar-ket turned around again we would be in a much better po-

sition,” says Howden, and the plan worked. “We did not take our foot off the accelerator, and we came out the other end with a better market share,” he says. With the present well-in-hand Howden says that they look to double their sales numbers in the next five years. “This year alone our objective is to surpass 180 million dollars in sales, so in the next five we hope to double that,” he says.

They are also looking to expand their businesses in China, Korea and Japan. “So its two things, its product pipeline development and geographic expansion.” They have also examined how they can educate to patients, and one of the methods they are looking at is mobile technology that will allow patients to track their con-ditions with a mobile app. One day iNova will have “an app for that”, Howden laughs at the sug-gestion, but says that is basically the idea. “Diabetics are one of the biggest groups that are look-ing for information about their condition, and if you can have an app for them, and lets them know if they are under control, they will embrace this sort of idea,” he says. This not only dem-onstrates the company’s forward thinking but their grasp of con-sumer technology as a market-ing and educational tool. This is hardly surprising coming from a company that Howden has de-scribed as excellent marketers, but it may become an unpleas-ant one for their competitors.


Formero, previously ARRK ANZ, has been a leader in proto-type developing for the last two decades. Founder and manag-ing director, Simon Mariott discusses the history of the com-

pany. While Simon explains that Formero’s original history had been in product and medical development, they later “branched out into prototyping and tooling manufacturing, specifically for the automo-tive industry,” says Simon. Formero is independently owned and is the largest prototyping and manufacturing services provider in Australia and New Zealand. Formero offers customers the latest prototyping technologies in the market. They offer 3 types of Rapid Prototyping technologies: SLA (stereolithography), Objet 3D Printing, and SLS (selective laser sintering). Prototyping is used in several different in-dustries including, but not limited to: medical, architecture, electron-ics, and automotive.


Formero differs from others in the industry based on their rapid results. Formero is able to provide their customers with a prototype in as little as one day. Formero also has diverse technology which sets them apart from their competitors. They are able to provide their customers with a broad range of solutions to meet their needs. “None of our competitors have the type of technology we have invested in,” says Simon. “We have 6 technology platforms that we can use to provide solutions to customers.” Even though they are leaders of the industry, Formero still faces its challenges. Simon sums up Formero’s three major challenges: technologi-cal challenges, the high dollar, and the ability to find skilled labourers. “Five of our technological staff are from Germany and the UK,” he explains. Formero values their highly skilled employees. In addition to performance goal targets and bo-nuses, Formero also offers a profit sharing pool for management, says Simon. Their second tier level employees are also given key goals with rewards against them. Such incentives keep both employ-ees and the business happy.

A little goes a long wayIn terms of green initiatives, Formero practices ‘environmentally friendly’ procedures. “Internal-ly, we recycle paper, plastic, and metals. We have designated areas where all our office stuff goes,” says Simon. Additionally, all the paper and card-board within their factory are recycled. Recycling is one of their major initiatives in reducing waste. Formero also practices a standard policy of “lights out.” After hours, all lights are to be turned off and all computers are to be shut down. Aside from two security lights, Formero has made a conscious ef-fort to reduce their use of power and electricity.


Not allowing the GFC to affect their positive outlook for the futureOf course Formero has not gone without being touched by the current global financial crisis. “The GFC certainly has affected us,” says Simon. “We saw a 20% drop in sales from 2008-2009, howev-er, 2009-2010 saw a complete rebound. We recov-ered our position.” Formero is projecting to grow by another 15%, but Simon is slightly pessimistic due to the current challenges which the economy is facing. In addition to the GFC, there are issues occurring worldwide; Japan, the Middle East, and even the floods here in Australia. The global economy is facing so many challenges at once; it is unlike anything we have seen before. “The next six


months will be a challenging time for a lot of busi-nesses,” says Simon. In the face of such challenges, Formero is looking to double their revenue. They are predicting an “aggressive growth period” with-in the next five years.

In addition to new markets opening up, Formero is also investing in new technology for the fu-ture. “Digital dentistry is a new market with a big growth area,” says Simon. By developing 3D printing technologies, they are replacing labour intensive aspects of the dental laboratory. They are supporting dental laboratories with a direct manufacturing process to produce study models and guides for surgeries.

Despite the importance of scientific innovation and research development, Simon explains the un-certainty that the government is placing in these areas. “While competition has never been stron-ger, the support of the government is vital to a lot of these players,” says Simon. “We need a govern-ment that is active in supporting innovation.” The discussion of readjusting tax allowances is impor-tant to Formero. The research sector is definitely not an area which can be ignored. It is in a sense our future.


MiniFAB was founded in 2002 as a privately owned and operated micro and nano manufacturing

company. Based in Melbourne, they special-ise in design, integration and manufacturing of polymer micro-engineered systems for the biotech, health, agriculture, food, and envi-ronmental sectors.

MiniFAB also has a self-describing name: “Fab of course comes out of the microelec-tronics industry, where you fabricate micro-electronic chips. Australia didn’t and doesn’t have a large microelectronics industry, but micro-technologies and nanotechnology more generally were starting to evolve in the 1990s into a process that was more main-stream manufacturing,” says Dr Erol Harvey, CEO of the innovative company. “The reason we put the mini in front of the fab, is that we were not creating a billion dollar semi-con-ductor plant, we were literally a much more affordable manufacturing and engineering design process based around micro and nano technologies. The name says exactly what we do, it’s mini - it’s small.” Together with Mi-chael Wilkinson, Dr Harvey founded Mini-FAB in 2002.

Crisis? What crisis?“Most of our business comes from clients overseas,” says Dr Harvey indicating that these clients make up about 90 per cent of their market. “The big area for us is in the development of diagnostics, such as a ‘Lab-on-a-Chip’ also known as ‘Point-of-Care Di-agnostics’,” he says. “Our business is a service company; we develop our client’s products


“says Dr Harvey. “Often our cli-ents will have a bright idea and need other bits brought togeth-er to make it work, or have an aspiration to develop a new kind of product.” During the Global Financial Crisis, Dr Harvey says that they began to notice that many of the larger players in the diagnostic field came to the re-alisation that innovation within their product range was very im-portant. “They knew what their product lines looked like going into the GFC, and they knew it couldn’t be the same coming out. So, there was, and is, a lot of business available in the area we are working in- both in terms of new product innovation and product development.” He says that investment into this type of expansion meant that MiniFAB has noticed little or no change in the amount of work available, even during the worst times of the financial crisis. “We did have a drop-off in venture capital and start-up companies coming to us from the US and Europe dur-ing this time, however even they are re-emerging into the field.” A large sector client of theirs is the biotech and medical fields. Many people have agreed that these two sectors have largely been unaffected by the econom-ic situation.

The land bridgeThe US and Europe represent the two largest concentrations of MiniFAB’s clients. The geo-graphical location of MiniFAB has also presented its own op-portunities and challenges, they

are the halfway point between major markets in Asia and the US, but are of course operating in a different time zone. “This works well for us, particularly in West Coast of the US, our morning overlaps with most of their afternoons, the other thing that has changed over the last few years is the affordability of teleconferencing and document sharing and so on. This makes the Geographic location be-come less and less important.”

According to Dr Harvey the development staff and project teams that MiniFAB now uses spans 2 or 3 continents, “This is pretty much the standard way in which we work now,” he says, but with the added stipulation that face-to-face meetings are also very important. “They are very important, but what this means is that between the face-to-face meetings you can get an awful lot done. The world for this in-dustry is becoming increasingly flat, so it something we take ad-vantage of,” he says.

Doing it right the first time

The product they developed for TearLabTM Corporation is al-most a case study in the adapt-ability and expertise found within MiniFAB. “TearLabTM started development of their dis-posable component using multi-project wafer processes offered by IBM in the USA. With this technology you can, for a fairly affordable amount of money,


Dr. Erol Harvey


piggy-back a number of designs onto a semi-conductor fab run.” The project became complicat-ed, and they sought out a sec-ondary company to help in the production, which again turned sour for them. “In desperation they were looking around for another contractor and came across us,” Dr Harvey recalls. “We were able to demonstrate, develop, and then deliver the entire polymer-based product though to CE (European) mar-ket launch within 18 months which in the Biotech industry is record time.” MiniFAB’s role was to create a disposable device

capable of collecting 50 Nano litres of tear fluid without the use of complicated secondary machinery. “We haven’t looked back since, we are now making over a million of these devices a year for them,” he says.

Building a reputation“A really important part of what we do is that we go right through from development process to manufacturing stage. Many of our competitors specialise in the development process, but for the proof of principle part,

if you aren’t using representa-tive materials, or representative manufacturing processes, then the whole process of translat-ing into manufacturing is much more expensive, much riskier, and takes much longer.”

Designing from early on in the process means that MiniFAB can guarantee that the process will work for the end of line product. “Martials are an im-portant part of what we do,” says Dr Harvey. “If you prototype in the wrong material, it’s not go-ing to be the one you take into manufacture and that will create further complications.” Mini-FAB spends a lot of its time with its biochemistry clients making sure that the materials match the needs of the final product.

In the near future, Dr Harvey sees that the production area will continue to be a major area for their business, as well as ex-panding opportunities for the company in Australia itself. Although at the present time much of their business is con-ducted with overseas compa-nies, Dr Harvey is really quite keen on expanding their home market. “Our business is about the top-end polymer micro-en-gineering. I think this can be a large sector for us, as well as con-tinuing in our product develop-ment initiatives.” He sees a fu-ture for MiniFAB in everything from biotech, implants, sensors, food packaging and water qual-ity monitoring. What they do is small, but the market for the ap-plications is almost limitless.


iZON is a New Zealand based nanotechnology company with a focus on detection, measure-ment and applied research in na-no-particles and nanomedicine. They currently offer a broad range of measurement and de-tection products aimed at re-searchers in the field. They hope that by offering their products at a fraction of the price that other companies, and are much more versatile than other offer-ings, that the promises of nano-technology and nanomedicine will become a reality. With their two flag ship products qNano and qViro, iZON is leading the way into nano-medical research.

“It’s a great story,” says iZON CEO Hans van der Voorn, “right now we are focusing on

how to sell our product to peo-ple who want to pay for it, this requires a lot of market research. This is quite radical for a nano-technology company, because a lot of them want to become the next big thing and a million dollar enterprise, but they seem to forget that they have to sell something to somebody first. So our focus has become to sell measurement instruments to re-searchers.” When van der Voorn began working for iZON, he had so much faith in the success of the company he came out of retirement and sold his house and taking the assets and rein-vesting them into the company. The impetus of the technology that iZON bases its product line came from one of the founders who saw that they could apply

some of the same techniques they use for making kayaks to nanotechnology.

“The main application of our products is medical research; we provide the tools for that medi-cal research,” says van der Voorn. “We provide a very accurate measurement tool to the people that are involved in nano-engi-neering. With these measure-ment tools they can optimise design and test their equipment in a much more efficient way.”

The biggest application that iZON has been applying its technology to is the emerging field of nanomedicine. Using beta vehicles in chemotherapy treatment, and the nanomedi-cine loaded into nano-particles,


doctors could more selectively target cancers and tumours. “Chemo is basically a poison, and doctors are always trying to find the right balance so that the medicine will affect a tumour, but not kill a patient. One of the goals in nanomedicine is to de-liver the chemotherapy drugs di-rectly to the tumour. This would bypass having to put it into the rest of the body.” Van der Voorn says that this is all still in the re-search stage, but shows incred-ible promise, and that iZON is just the tool that researchers would need at this point.

“What they want to do is load up the drugs into nano-parti-cles, and have those particles find their way to a tumour,” he says that with iZON research-

ing these possibilities has made this closer to reality. “What they need at this point is very precise control and a very pre-cise understanding about what those particle systems are, and what we offer is a measurement system that lets them do a whole range of measurements – before, during and after.”

Working with the University of Melbourne they have imple-mented there technology there with resounding success. “They create these very complex struc-tures, they have a very small nanoparticle that they coat with layers of various proteins, and then they dissolve the particle out of the middle. This leaves them with this hollow bas-ket, their goal is to put drugs

inside this basket and have it pass through a cell wall into a tumour.” In this instance they couldn’t find an accurate way of measuring the amount of “bas-kets” they had created. This is where iZON was able to supply the much needed measurement tools. This process of counting the particles is almost instan-taneous. The setup takes only a few minutes the part that takes time, but compared to the time it would take to do the same process with an electron micro-scope you are looking at a differ-ence of almost 12 hours if not a day. The other problem is with a delay as long as 12 hours, the objects being observed change their position and their proper-ties. With iZON’s technology you get an almost instantaneous


snap shot of how many particles a researched would be dealing with.

iZON is not the only company in this space, and van der Voorn

is quick to point out that they are the most advanced provider of this technological solution, their major competition is that of the established technol-ogy. The established technolo-

gies, he says, have not moved fast enough with the research. “What we have is a classic dis-ruptive technology, we can do a lot of things that they simply cannot do. Finding the concen-


tration of particles is just one example of something that they do not do nearly as well.”

Their products are incredibly compact and because of this,

shipping costs and energy con-sumption is kept low. “Our power consumption of the de-vices is very light for the end user, almost trivial. In the pro-duction process each device represents a very small carbon footprint,” says van der Voorn, pointing to only some of the advantages. Each device is also 100 per cent recyclable when it reaches its end of life.

With a small price tag there comes some great opportunities for research and educational in-stitutions. “First of all, any of our products will run on any new laptop, right off the self. We provide our own software, and if there are any updates to it we supply it for free forever.” Another of the advantages to the product because they are relatively inexpensive to say, an electron microscope, profes-sors and researchers will not be hesitant in letting graduate or undergraduate students use the equipment.

By the middle of next year iZON has set the goal for itself

to become the world’s #2 com-pany that does nano-particle measurement. As van der Voorn says, the world’s number one company has been around for 30 years, and it is not realistic that they will overtake them in less than a year. Their market-ing strategy over the duration of their operations has been focused on direct sales and partnerships. “98 per cent of our sales are done through di-rect sales, but we are looking at building networks and partner-ships across the world.” says van der Voorn. Much of their mar-keting is done through submis-sions to scientific journals and the production of papers and reports. This is a slower process than most mainstream technol-ogy companies, but the peer review process that they must go through during submission adds credence and power to their brand. With units already at Harvard and Oxford, iZON is targeting its core audience with an exciting new product, one that will let them make breakthroughs with a smaller cash spend.


The medical technology in-dustry is growing rapidly

around the world, with annual revenues forecast to be over (USD) $288 billion in 2011, driven by the increasing afflu-ence of developed and develop-ing countries, improvements in medical technologies and the resultant increases in life expec-tancy fuelling demands for a higher quality of life, regardless of health conditions.

AusMedtech, part of AusBio-tech, is the national industry group that represents the medi-cal devices and diagnostics in-dustry sector. AusMedtech works to a strategic plan to grow and support this important and fast-growing industry sector, by:

• Providing information to al-low for better decision making by medical technology business-es - facilitate success in product development, manufacturing and business;

• Representing Australian de-velopers and manufactures and focus the industry on commer-cialisation and export success – taking Australian medical tech-nology to the world;

• Supporting future sustain-ability by encouraging links be-tween industry, research bodies and government;

• Leading advocacy for indus-try issues and to raise commu-nity awareness of the Australian medical technology industry.

The Therapeutic Goods Admin-istration has defined a medical device as any technology, in-cluding devices, software or di-agnostics, intended to be used by human beings for the preven-tion, monitoring or treatment of a disease, injury or physiologi-cal process. It includes joint re-placements, artificial hearts and heart stents, as well as implants like the cochlear implant.

Driving the demand in medical devices in Australia, is one of the world’s fastest ageing popula-tions. By 2050, over 30% of the population will be over 65 years of age and the ‘85 or older’ age group is the fastest-growing seg-ment.

Australia has seen its medtech sector advancing vigorously for some years and now has an es-tablished community of com-panies, particularly in Victoria and New South Wales (NSW).

Industry success stories include ResMed, maker of devices to treat sleep disorders, and bionic ear pioneer, Cochlear. These two companies have a market capi-talisation of more than (AUD) $5 billion and almost $ 4 billion respectively.

These are the largest amongst, and perhaps best known of the estimated group of more than 1,000 companies that make up

Australia’s medtech industry. The majority of companies are at the start-up end of the spec-trum and employ fewer than 20 people. Around 10% of the sector now employs over 100 people.

Industry turnover in Australia is over $6.5 billion annually, with revenue from local manufactur-ing more than tripling, from $898 million in 2003-04 to $3.2 billion in 2010-11. There are at least 17,500 people employed


by 1,890 enterprises in the sec-tor, generating more than $1.1 billion in wages. This reflects the strong growth since 2003-04 when there were only 710 enter-prises employing 4,800 people.

Around 80% of enterprises are on the eastern seaboard with many companies involved in import-ing, sales, marketing and distri-bution and undertaking a com-plex range of activities including the research, development and manufacture of products. It is

an exemplary knowledge-based industry with healthy prospects, expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6 – 9% over the next five to ten years in line with global trends, provided a sufficient skills base is available. This strong projected growth in demand is expected to lead to increased rates of ex-pansion for start-up and mid life companies, with many mature domestic companies expecting to double their revenues in the next three years and importing

companies expanding opera-tions.

The industry is strongly export-focused, exporting over 80% of domestic production. Trade is mainly with the US, EU, Japan and China. While exporting most of the medical devices pro-duced, Australia imports more than 80% of medical devices consumed, demonstrating the truly global nature of this indus-try.


The industry is advancing rapid-ly, using research developments to facilitate innovations in the biomedical sphere. An increas-ing convergence of technology platforms has resulted in greater collaboration across the disci-plines of biomedical, electronic and mechanical engineering, nanotechnology, ICT and soft-ware development to develop the next generation of medical bionics.

The Australian industry’s pre-

mier medical technology confer-ence, AusMedtech 2011 (www.ausmedtech.com.au) is to be held 23-24 May in Sydney, providing business partnering opportu-nities for decision-makers and networking with key industry players. The annual event brings together key stakeholders of the Australian and international medical devices and diagnostics sector, to discuss the major issues in global medtech success with a focus on emerging markets. This is a must-attend event for any-

one interested in the sector.

Special features of AusMedtech 2011 include a Medtech Invest-ment Summit and the Medtech Trade Exhibition. This confer-ence will provide information to help you plot your course to global success, targeting key commercial issues such as export opportunities, finance and in-vestment, hot technologies and updates in the fields of IP, regu-latory approvals, reimbursement and sales networks.


Mark Watson, CEO of Ormiston says that the

hospital was created to fill a need, and has quickly moved to not only fulfil that need, but has exceeded expectations of the product. In 2008, ground was broken on what is now a gleam-ing and appealing medical facil-ity. Celebrating their first-year of operations, Ormiston Hospi-tal has nothing but good feelings about its staff, patients, and its future.

“There was no private hospi-tal facility between Greenlane, Auckland, and Hamilton, there is quite a big gap, geographically speaking, without a private sur-gical health care options for the population of the South and East of Auckland. This particu-lar area in Auckland is growing at an extremely rapid rate,” says Watson, pointing to the need for an extension of health care outside of the publically funded system. “Back in 2007 it was rec-

ognized that there was an op-portunity for someone to build a hospital in the South and East Auckland area due to the rapid growth that was expected over the next few years with the planned execution “of a number of big projects” being developed by the local authorities. “We saw a need, we chose to fill it.”

These projects included a num-ber of housing, commercial and retail developments that Watson described as “right next door to us”. However, these plans were put on hold due to the global recession. Watson knew that they are still on the books, and decided that although some people might hesitate in taking on this opportunity. “There is still a huge growth in popula-tion expected in this area in the next 10-15 years,” he says, so new homes or not, south-east Auck-land will still need health care providers. In fact the popula-tion expected to grow by at least

170,000 in the next 15 years. It is a clear indication that an ex-panded health care system will be needed in the near future- if not already. With more than 50 surgeons credentialed to work at the hospital, the project already seems to be a success. With a joint venture partnership so-lidified with Southern Cross, they have been able to expand their original plans and provide more services. On June 20th 2009, Ormiston was opened as Auckland’s first private hospital, the ceremony was propitiated by Prime Minister John Key. The notability of this achieve-ment was obviously not lost on government officials. This year marked the one- year anniversa-ry of the company, one that was celebrated in local papers and events. “We also celebrated with our staff taking them out on a nice boat trip, we kept it small but I think everyone had a good time,” he says. “We celebrated with the staff who really make


[Ormiston] work, to be hon-est and we really wanted them to make them feel appreciated.” The 90 staff members that make up the economic workforce of Ormiston are either nursing staff or allied health professionals workers. These employees make up the backbone of Ormiston’s plan for success.

“Clare McArthur, my predeces-sor, and John Edwards along with a few clinicians got to-gether with a couple of local GP practices and went out and sold the idea of building a pri-vate hospital in the area. This hospital was to be guided by the clinicians and local GP’s, and owned by the clinicians and lo-cal GP’s.” The purpose, he says, was to serve the community of South and East Auckland, and the community is important to us. The founders saw that trans-portation to a major medical centre might present a problem to patients who required minor or cosmetic surgery. “We want-ed to offer a solution that would mean that they didn’t have to travel to central Auckland to get

Mark Watson (Chief Executive Officer)

“I am extremely proud of our clinical reputation in the workplace that we

have at the moment. I am very proud of the level of experience and skill

that we have in our staff.”


their medical or surgical proce-dures done,” says Watson. South and Easte Auckland, specifically the Counties Manukau region represents about 11 per cent of New Zealand’s total population.

A “double boost”Planning for the hospital be-

gan in late 2006 and carried on through 2007. During the final stage of building the stake hold-ers were approached by South-ern Cross Hospitals Limited.

Southern Cross represents New Zealand’s largest private hospital network, they are a not-for-prof-it group who focus on affordabil-

ity in health services and any sur-pluses that they may achieve are reinvested into their group of af-filiates and partners. Part of this reinvestment into private health care took the form of a formation of a partnership with Ormiston. “They wanted to invest into this facility,” recounts Watson, “they put a significant investment into

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this building and became a 40 per cent shareholder of the or-ganization. By doing so, we be-came another joint venture with Southern Cross, of which they now have four all around New Zealand and this means that they don’t directly control the management of the hospital, but they have a seats on the board.”

Watson says that the investment and operational support that Southern Cross provided gave them a “double-boost” that let them expand far beyond what they had first planned.

“Originally we had planned for four operating theatres that would deal with mainly day case medical procedures. With Southern Cross we were able to

add two more theatres, and im-prove our facility but allows us to do what we do now, which is not only day case surgery but more complex surgery and over-night stay ward facilities,” he says, very enthusiastic about what this means to the facility.

ChallengesThe building itself was complet-ed in early 2009. Watson laughs when asked if it still has that new hospital smell, “it does,” he chuckles “just like a new car.” The hospital boasts some of the most technologically advanced operating theatres in New Zea-land, attracting professionals to the private facility from far and wide. The preference that sur-geons have placed with Orm-

iston speaks to the efforts that Watson and the staff there have made in providing the best facili-ties and support. “Of course one of our biggest challenges that we faced was that we open smack-bang in the middle of the reces-sion,” although New Zealand has escaped much of the worst of this economic down-turn, people were worried about the possible effects. Many down-graded their health insurance policies and put off elective surgeries. “Obvi-ously people thought that they needed that money somewhere else in their household spend-ing,” says Watson, he has also seen a reduction in the funding the Government has supplied for letting public health patients have access to private hospitals, as well as significant case review


processes within ACC .

“These are the main areas that have affected our patient throughput numbers, but to be honest since the beginning of this year we have noticed a plateau of patient numbers. This is actually quite pleasing because last year we were seeing dips and spikes, now we are actually levelling off with a reg-ularity in our patient throughput,” Watson says he is very pleased with the progress he and his team have made in the last 12 months. On approaching the community, Watson says they are being quiet successful in developing ties with all the local GP practices and a certain trust in their care. “Because we have both a public and a private healthcare sys-tem here, what we have been trying to show them that we are that ‘comfort blanket’ should they re-quire surgery or medical treatment,” he says.

Spreading the wordThe General Practitioners that Ormiston depends on are also its biggest evangelists. By having some

ServicesWatson says they are constantly expanding their services, and the more specialized options they can provide for, the more they will thrive. One of the new services they have expanded into recently is Bariatric surgery, or weight loss surgery and will soon be adding spinal surgery to their list of services in February 2011. Watson is particularly excited about this development, as well as the establishment of all their fully available services. w Bariatric surgeryw Ear, nose and throat surgeryw General surgeryw Gastroenterology/Endoscopyw Gynaecologyw Maxillofacial & Oral surgeryw Paediatric surgeryw Plastic Reconstructive and Cosmetic surgeryw Liposuctionw Ophthalmologyw Orthopaedicsw Spinal Surgeryw Urologyw Vascular surgeryw Radiologyw Breast Carew Pharmacy


of them as shareholders in the hospital, they are also motivated to see the project succeed. “We also market to the community, as a service that is available and convenient to their local area. We really try to push that aspect as part of our overall marketing strategy,” Watson says. “Certain-ly we have been successful in this because the community is a lot more aware of us and our services than they were 12 months ago. If they ever need a private hospital, they know that they have one on their doorstep rather than hav-ing to go all the way into Auck-land City, through some terrible traffic at certain times.”

One of the goals for Ormiston Hospital is to become part of the overall health system for Counties Manukau, working in partnership with the public health system in providing qual-ity healthcare to the community. Though situated in Counties Manukau, Ormiston reaches into the surrounding area, such as Northern parts of Waikato and the Coromandel Peninsula. “What’s unique about Ormiston is that if you get your surgeons to invest in the operations of the organization by way of share-holding, which then allows the surgeons to more incentivized to bring patients to this hospi-tal, which becomes a facility that

they know and trust.”

Another aspect that separates Ormiston from the rest of the herd is that they are “brand new, chic and contemporary in the design and layout of the hospital. We have a significant amount of state-of-the-art and cutting-edge medical equipment that a num-ber of other hospitals have not moved on to yet,” says Watson. Trust and convenience means a lot to the patients that Ormiston serves, with consistently positive feedback from both patients and doctors.

“We have concentrated on im-proved models of patient flow,


high standards of care, and judg-ing from our patient satisfaction surveys, and from the feedback we get from our surgeons we are very well regarded at the mo-ment, with an outstanding clini-cal reputation,” he says, quite pleased with the results. He also points out that their clini-cal reputation has also been very high amongst their peers in the industry. “Certainly, many of the doubters we may have had 12-months-ago appear to have all silenced.”

For this year Watson says that their main focus will be on the consolidation of services, and getting the existing facility op-

erating to its full potential. Wat-son says that the next year will also help determine the growth rate of the hospital for the next 5, and even 10 years. With their expanding reputation, Ormiston sees that the more surgeons that want to be part of the hospital, the busier the hospital will get. Is Watson proud of what Orm-iston has accomplished? Simply put: Very. “I am extremely proud of our clinical reputation in the workplace that we have at the moment. I am very proud of the level of experience and skill that we have in our staff, we put a lot of effort in to acquiring the best staff that came from this area, we have even attracted a lot of care

professionals from other hospi-tals to come and work for us. We rely on the skills of our specialists that choose to work in our facil-ity, but we also treat them like our customers.” Watson thinks they have been particularly suc-cessful in building up their con-fidence in the service they offer and making their staff and physi-cians happy. “I think this makes us unique because this way we really have two types of custom-ers. The first of course is the pa-tients, the second is our special-ists. If we keep them happy, they will come back to us and bring their patients.” Each set of cus-tomers, says Watson, is equally important to them.


Dr Peter Stephenson, founder and Executive Director, of Montserrat Day Hospitals has been in the specialty medical field since 1978.

Graduating in 1968, he obtained his first specialty degree in 1972 in General Medicine, and then sub-specialising in Gastroenterology. He has a long history in private practice, and is very in tune with the needs of doctors, patients and the community at large. This made him one of the best individuals to start and run his own private hospital.

In 1996, he and some colleagues founded the first Montserrat Day Hos-pital in South East Queensland and have continued to expand their offer-ings to include a network of three Day Hospitals in Spring Hill, Indooroo-pilly, and Gaythorne. In 2006, Dr Stephenson became the President of the Australian Day Hospital Association, and has held positions on the Department of Health’s Aging and Care Committees. His election and appointments to these positions speak to his long and distinguished ca-reer in medicine. In 2008 he retired from clinical practice due to a serious tractor accident. He has remained active and has changed his focus to the management of his hospitals, and the future development of the compa-ny and its holdings. Part of this has already shown some great expansion opportunities, with the slated opening of the new North Lakes facility due to open in September 2011. This new day hospital will boast state-of-the-art operating theatres, modern décor, and systems that maximize patient flow.

The Montserrat mission“Our mission is to provide exceptional patient centric care in all of our Day Hospitals, and the strategy we intend to achieve this is to provide such good care for our patients and such good conditions for our Pro-ceduralists that we can attract both away from overnight hospital care,” says Dr Stephenson. By implementing this tactic they have become well known for their quality and above industry standards within their facili-ties. Montserrat’s 15 years of experience in operating Day Surgeries means that their patients are provided with exceptional service from the mo-ment they walk through their doors.

Patients are also contacted either 14 or 21 days after their surgical proce-dures in order to ensure that they are well and satisfied with their experi-ence at Montserrat. This continuous feedback system ensures that Mont-serrat is able to improve their services and address the concerns of their patients

Establishing a reputationDr Stephenson recognises that their reputation in the area of endoscopy


is already well known, but also points to the fact they have expanded their services to in-clude Paediatric Dental, Urol-ogy, Plastic & Cosmetic Sur-gery, IVF, Podiatric Surgery and General Surgery at their facili-ties. “We have expanded on the range of the disciplines that we offer,” he says.

“We started with Gastroenter-ology alone in the first two day hospitals, but we have expanded our services to include clinical surgery in the third, and will as well in the fourth when it opens. It will have an expanded, but still limited set of disciplines.” Lim-iting the available disciplines will not minimize the success of Montserrat, but will allow them to excel in the services they of-

fer. “Our case load has increased immeasurably with these ex-panded sites.” To support this Dr Stephenson says they have 2 operating rooms and 4 proce-dure rooms in total at this time, and with the opening of the fourth hospital they will have a total of nine operating rooms in total.

Trends in the industry“The major trends that I am see-ing in the industry are that the costs and the adverse outcome rate, especially in the overnight hospitals, are far too high,” says Dr Stephenson. “There is a world-wide recognition that the technological advances have allowed much of which was

done in overnight hospitals to be now done in Day Hospitals with very good outcomes, and considerable savings,” he says. Dr Stephenson thinks that this market reorientation from over-night to day hospital facilities can only improve the health of the population at large, rather than diminish it. “In the Day Hospital we are seeing minimal adverse events and considerable cost of care savings,” he says.

“I could point to just one of the adverse out comes, which has become a major problem re-cently. This is hospital acquired antibiotic resistant infections,”. Day Hospitals have a very low infection rate.

Dr Stephenson feels there is

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strong competition between overnight and Day Hospitals for Procedural Doctors as well as patients, and this is healthy.

However, there are strong ar-guments, due to outcomes and costs, that if patients’ surgeries or procedures, are suitable for

Day Hospitals then the surger-ies or procedures should be per-formed there. This is a growing trend throughout the world, and because of technical ad-vances it is accepted that most procedures and surgeries can now be performed in Day Hos-pitals.

Changing ideas, changing mindsThere is a perception that large hospitals with imposing bricks and mortar are better equipped to deal with healthcare needs. The belief that stand-alone Day Hospitals are less adequately equipped is simply errone-ous. They must be comparably equipped to overnight facilities to manage their case load, to


maintain their licensing and ac-creditation. What they do offer is a relatively clean environment (with absence of resident an-tibiotic infections, which now plague our overnight facilities). In addition, each Day Hospi-tal offers a focused culture and practice to deal with and spe-cialises in a limited number of disciplines.

This allows organisations like Montserrat to be efficient. Dr Stephenson points out that the operations and services that Montserrat does offer is at least as good as what overnight hos-pitals can offer. “We do provide excellent services, with excel-lent outcomes, with very low adverse outcomes and are very cost competitive.”


Waikiki Private Hospital was estab-lished in 1994, and located 50 ki-

lometres from the central business district of Perth in the suburb of Waikiki. From here, the staff at the hospital have dedicated themselves to providing care and bolstering the area’s healthcare system. During its 16 years of operation it has gone through sev-eral different owners. The present owner is Dr Tony Robinson who purchased the hospital in October 2006, at which time the name was changed to Waikiki Private Hospital in order to reflect the community focused healthcare they hoped to provide. Karen Court came to work for the compa-ny almost a year later in 2007, attracted by the team that administers Waikiki, she felt that the environment was perfect for her. She now acts as Waikiki Private Hospital’s Quality & Risk Manager.

In the past Waikiki Private Hospital’s past incarnations have focused mostly on the maternity and midwifery specialities, but under their new direction they are opening up their services to offer more main stream services in place of midwifery which was ceased by a previous owner. By expanding their services they are filling a vital need in the area. Private health care member-ship has continued to grow over the last few years, and Waikiki Private Hospital is there to serve the individuals in their area. “We have worked with the community and


looked at the epidemiology and the results for health related is-sues for this area. We have tried to improve those results by intro-ducing other services that meet the needs of the community. At the end of the day, if you aren’t meeting the needs of the com-

munity you are not going to pull your customer base from any-where,” says Court. One of the new services that they provide, introduced only 18 months ago, is a sleep-studies unit. “People come in here and have overnight studies, and we have changed

our surgical mix. We now in-clude things like vascular sur-gery, and bariatric surgery. We are bringing in the services that the community wants, as well as what the doctors are asking for so they are able to bring their pa-tients in here,” says Court.


To attract doctors to their facil-ity, Waikiki Private Hospital ex-amines the needs of the people around them.

“We then go out and do a mar-keting process in order to make surgeons aware of us, encourag-ing them to come and work in our hospital. Quite, often how-ever they come to us looking to do some private work,” she says. The challenge, according to Court, is influencing the re-ferral patterns of local General Practitioners. “Historically the GPs have referred to a special-ists who are located up in Perth. So it’s not just attracting those specialists to us, it going out and marketing our services to the lo-cal GPs, who will then refer their

patients to us. Another very im-portant thing is that we market ourselves to the local commu-nity so that they are aware of our services.”

This, says Court, empowers the consumer, and allows them to make their own educated choic-es when it comes to their care. “When we go out and tell our customer base about our new services, and inform them about how they can get access to those services that has gone a long way into increasing our patient throughput.”

Their Sleep Studies Unit helps individuals with sleep and respi-ratory disorders including ob-structive sleep apnoea (OSA),

insomnia, periodic limb move-ments (PLM’s), narcolepsy and hypoventilation syndromes.

“The growth we have experi-enced has been quite astound-ing- Enough so that we won a Judge’s Commendation Award last year from the Rockingham Kwinana Chamber of Com-merce’s Small Business Awards. That Judge’s award was in rec-ognition of the growth that we have made in the last 3 years.” The community is obviously recognising the vitality and am-bition that is behind Waikiki Private Hospital’s new team.

In an effort to alleviate some of the costs associated with run-ning a private, standalone hos-


pital, Waikiki Private Hospital is looking at finding other com-panies that are interested in do-ing some of the bulk buying of medical supplies. Single and low purchase amounts represents significant costs to the hospital, and they are committed to find a way to reducing this overhead cost. “By being a member of the local Chamber of Commerce, and purchasing services from other members we can keep

some of our costs lower, and this also helps build community ties, says Court. “This also shares our growth with other businesses in the local area.”

One of the improvements that Court says has shown an incred-ibly positive effect on patients welfare and diminishes recov-ery time is laparoscopic surgery. Since the incisions are smaller in this procedure, it reduces many

adverse effects such as infection, and it decreases the amount of time required to recover from surgeries. They have adopted this method of surgery wherever it is applicable and invested heavily in having the right tools for the job available to their surgeons. “It is much better than great big surgical incisions, which cause much more trauma to the pa-tient,” says Court. A much sort-er stay also reduces the chances


that a patient will get hospital related infections, this is a fact that many studies have already confirmed.

They are not without their chal-lenges, one of which, says Court, comes from the public hospital system, “The private health care industry waxes and wanes de-pending on the politics and pol-icies of the day,” she says. “We have seen significant funding

changes that we receive through the tax system as well.”

“Industry wide there are issues with public hospitals holding onto private patients, instead of pushing them out to the pri-vate hospitals,” she says this has a negative effect on both the pri-vate and public systems. When they hold onto patients they are actually creating a backlog for the access to public beds, and

also hurt the business of the pri-vate hospitals that are designed for that in-patient flow.

“We hope to continue with the present growth rate,” says Court. “We want to consolidate our business and see what other opportunities are out there. We like to think outside of the square and hopefully brining in newer technologies and special-ties as they come to the market.”

Medicine – Cardiology, Der-matology, Gastroenterology, Hepatology, General Medicine, Gerontology, Medical Oncol-ogy, Nephrology, Gynaecol-ogy, Ophthalmology, Paediatric Medicine, Palliative medicine, and Rheumatology.

Surgery – Colorectal surgery, Dental surgery, ENT surgery, General surgery, gynaecologi-cal surgery, oral/maxillofacial surgery, major and minor or-thopaedic surgery, ophthalmic surgery, otolaryngology sur-gery, paediatric surgery, plastic/reconstructive surgery, urology and vascular surgery.

Services offered by Waikiki Private Hospital:


With its headquarters 14 km South of Sydney, The Pulse Health Group is an in-tegrated private health care company that encompasses three major divisions: private hospitals and day surgeries, community home care, and recruitment and

workforce services.

With control of five hospitals throughout New South Wales and Queensland providing a myr-iad of surgical, medical and rehabilitation services; their hospitals include Bega Valley Private Hospital, Gympie Private Hospital, South Burnett Private Hospital, Forster Private Hospital, and Westmead Rehabilitation Hospital.

Additionally, they also control one community care organisation servicing from Western Syd-ney to the Mid North Coast of NSW and one healthcare recruitment agency.

In comparison to two of the largest private healthcare companies currently dominating the in-dustry, Pulse Health may appear small in size, but this will not remain the case forever.

Pulse Health is quickly becoming one of Australia’s leading private healthcare operators by demonstrating values which appeal to the communities in which they operate.


First and foremost they value excellence in clinical service and high customer satisfaction.

With responsible resource management and a strong and respected presence both in regional Australia and a leader in rehabilitation medicine in metropolitan Sydney, they understand the needs of serving their communities and the valu-able relationships of key stakeholders.

Pulse Health is currently listed on the Australian Securities Exchange at .050. “Keeping sharehold-ers informed is something I believe very strong-ly about,” says Justin Matthews, CEO at Pulse Health. “I speak often with key shareholders and key brokers that are recommending or have share-holders within their portfolios. Also regularly publishing newsletters updating the investor rela-tions market with our activities,” says Matthews.

Matthews was appointed CEO of Pulse Health in November of 2010 and is off to a great start with the company.

With the helpful hand of Wendy Thorne, the COO of Pulse Health, Matthews, Thorne and other Pulse Health executives within the group are able to keep on top of issues surrounding their hospitals.

Thorne began her career as a registered nurse sev-eral years ago. In 2004, she joined the Commu-nity Care division of Pulse Health. “Over time I advanced within management to the point that in 2006 I was running the Community Care divi-sion. In 2008 Pulse Health bought that organisa-tion and I was able to stay within the company. In early 2010, corporate met with me and identified a contribution that I could make within a corpo-rate role. I advanced to operations manager of a number of our business units and ultimately in late 2010 to COO of the group. In essence, I look after the management of group contracts and en-terprise agreements among other key operational aspects that can impact directly to the running of the business,” says Thorne. Wendy Thorne and her position within Pulse Health is the shining result


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of hard work and perseverance. Pulse Health’s corporate governance structure encapsulates a Board of Directors. “The Board provides the overall strategic direction for the company. They provide valuable corporate governance and poli-cy. They are responsible for appointing the CEO and monitoring the activities of management as a whole,” says Matthews.

While the Board of Directors have a variety of different functions and responsibilities, some of them include: reviewing and approving financial goals, approving financial plans and annual bud-gets, reviewing the performance of senior man-agement, reporting to shareholders, fulfilling legal requirements and ensuring the company acts both responsible and ethically.

Relatively new in the private health care industry, Pulse Health is continually growing in both size and recognition from the community. Most of its hospitals are the only private operator in the town and service a growing ageing population. “There

are definitely positions to capitalise on some of the strong demographics and industry data,” says Matthews. “It is important to support healthcare as a sector. Healthcare itself is a growing contribu-tion of the gross domestic product and hospitals account for the largest share of the service sector within the industry.”

ServicesPulse Health prides themselves on providing the communities they operate in with dependable, first class health care services. They put their pa-tients’ needs at the core of everything they do – their commitment to this principle is how Pulse Health shapes the way they work, and this prin-ciple is behind their many services.

Hospital services are varied and can range from day surgery procedures in ophthalmology, ear nose and throat procedures, dental, gynaecologi-cal, bowel and urology services to name a few through to complex cases such as knee and hip


replacements. With a view to provide care from admission and after, or to help keep an individual’s independence as they begin to find challenges in the home, rehabilitation services across 2 of its hospitals provide excellent outcomes in their pa-tient’s quality of life with valuable allied health services including such practices as podiatry, phys-iotherapy, occupational therapy, speech patholo-gy, and dietetics.

The community care service across its region of service provides community home care for people who would otherwise be prematurely admitted to residential care or hospitals or who after a time in hospital need further clinical or personal extra care and attention in the short term.

Looking forwardPulse Health’s vision for the future is to establish a community orientation of management by pro-viding private hospital services throughout Aus-tralia. They aim to become a point of interface

within the community, and through that, improve their market share.

The future is looking bright for Pulse Health. “We want to continue to do what we do,” says Mat-thews. “Operate efficient and good quality health care services to the community.” Other plans for the future include acquisitions and consolida-tions. “We will continue to look at acquisitions that make sense for Pulse and our current share-holders,” says Matthews. “Another round of con-solidation with us and other health care provid-ers may be in order,” he predicts. At the time of going to print Pulse Health had recently released an ASX announcement stating that Pulse Health Limited has received an unsolicited, conditional expression of interest relating to its operations, and those of an interested party. Corporate ad-visors have been appointed. “The attractiveness around our strategic hospital portfolio and the way in which we are performing as a group is posi-tive demonstration of the expression of interest received,” says Matthews.


Business World Australia sat down for a question and answer session with the Executive Director of Fiona Stanley Hospital, Mr Brad Sebbes. Fiona Stanley Hospital is in construction in Murdoch and is expected to be open

in 2014. The hospital represents a new standard of care for Western Australia and the community of the South Metropolitan area. The managing contractor on the project is Brookfield Multiplex FSH Contractor Pty Ltd, and the architect is Fiona Stanley Hospital Design Collaboration (FSHDC).The latter team is made up of three


of the most prestigious architectural firms in Western Australia; HASSELL, Hames Sharley and Silver Thomas Han-ley. Their design will help to make Fiona Stanley Hospital one of the most cut-ting edge hospitals when it is completed; while at the same time incorporating de-sign ideas to aid the recovery of patients

at the facility. FSHDC was fastidious in making sure the final project would be as future proof and energy efficient as possible, making upgrades to it for the foreseeable future either unnecessary or relatively easy. Mr Sebbes speaks direct-ly to this point later in the interview.The community, local government, and


the directorship at the hospital, already sees great potential in the hospital, and many cannot wait until the ribbon is cut to begin to benefit from its operation.

Business World Australia: One of the questions that we always ask is where people get the names of their projects,

so why was Fiona Stanley chosen as the hospital’s name?Mr Brad Sebbes: Fiona Stanley Hospital is named after Professor Fiona Stanley, an eminent Western Australian clinician who was named Australian of the Year in 2003. Professor Stanley has dedicat-ed her life to researching the causes of


major childhood illnesses and birth de-fects, so they can be prevented. Profes-sor Stanley’s name was put forward by members of the public in a competition run by the Health Department to name the hospital. She was deemed the ide-al namesake - with over 300 published papers in scientific journals. She is the founding Director of the Telethon Insti-tute for Child Health Research, Chair of the Australian Research Alliance for Children and Youth, the UNICEF Aus-tralia Ambassador for Early Childhood Development, and a member of the Prime Minister’s Science, Engineering and Innovation Council.BWA: Why was the location selected, I

can see that there are already medical services available in the area is this go-ing to align with those services? Mr Sebbes: When it opens in 2014, Fiona Stanley Hospital in Murdoch will be the major tertiary hospital in Western Aus-tralia, offering health care services to communities south of Perth and across the State.

The site was chosen for its proximity to a growing south metropolitan population and to nearby health and learning insti-tutes. It is located adjacent to a major private hospital, St John of God Hospital, maximising the synergies beThe Fiona Stanley Hospital Design Collaboration


The DesignThe Design(FSHDC) is a tripartite group compris-ing of Silver Thomas Hanley, Hames Sharley and Hassell. Commissioned in June 2007 as lead designers for the hospital, they provided urban design, master planning, clinical planning, ar-chitecture, landscape architecture, inte-rior design and wayfinding services to deliver the state’s most significant and advanced tertiary hospital to date.

Previously a green-field site, the facility had to provide a nurturing healthcare environment, a patient-centric service delivering care in the most user friendly manner and be a hub for state wide tertiary services. Detailed investigations, exten-sive consultation and a shared team vision led to the creation of an original and exciting develop-ment unique to Western Australia.

The building is designed to carefully integrate with existing and proposed neighbouring uses and functions, including the Murdoch Activity

Centre/Transit orientated development, St John of God Private Hospital, Murdoch University, and the Challenger Technical and Further Edu-cation facility. At the same time, the master plan-ning of the precinct enables logical expansion and future proofing opportunities to respond to

“For the FSHDC it has, and continues to be, an exciting project to work on. We have been fortunate to work with a Client, project team and Contractor who all share the vision of taking this hospital development beyond the functional and creating an exciting piece of architecture, one which displays a level of sensitivity and humanity fundamental to the successful completion of the Fiona Stanley Hospital.”

George Raffa – Co-Director Fiona Stanley Hospital Design Collaboration


the evolving healthcare needs of the community it serves.

Inspired by the natural bushland setting, the core hospital is massed into three distinct compo-nents: the podium; central spine; and ward tow-ers reflecting the planning approach. Responding to the brief for a state wide tertiary health facility to be linked to world class teaching and research resources also led to these facilities being posi-tioned close to the main entrance of the hospital. This approach supports the wayfinding strategy and promotes an identity unique to its setting.

Floors are penetrated by a network of accessible landscaped courtyards and open ended corridors defining the building massing, offering external access, views and enhancing wayfinding. Informal gathering spaces, contemplation points and wan-der paths combine with landscape courtyards and roof gardens to create a rich sense of place. Build-ings are designed on the basis of sustainable first principles by maximising passive design elements and combining them with complementary active systems. Attracting and retaining high quality clinical personnel is also encouraged by the cre-ation of an environment that enables collabora-tive work practices, flexibility, efficiency and pro-ductivity.

The imagery of the existing bushland on the site and its native flora are reflected in the differing strata of the elevational treatment to the podium. Exposed concrete columns and shading fins rep-resent the mature and young bushland growth, connecting areas of solid cladding and glazed ‘voids’ that represent the canopy. This idea con-tinues through to the interior. The central spine connects all key facilities and provides access via

lifts to the ward towers. Its roof is punctuated with apertures designed to provide a filtered dap-pled light to the space echoing the effect of the tree canopy.

Evidence based Design (EBD) approaches are becoming increasingly important in modern healthcare facilities. Its application to the health-care environment presented an opportunity for the team to explore innovative concepts and ways of connecting space, light, colour, views and the outdoor environment to achieve a positive expe-

“Connections with nature are central to

many EBD studies and the landscape

architecture team worked very closely

with the broader design team to maximise

meaningful and sensitive connections

with the native landscape and its re-

interpretation at a precinct level and within

individual building settings.”

Jeff Menkens, Co-Director Fiona Stanley Hospital Design Collaboration.

“One of the key success factors achieved on

the Fiona Stanley Hospital site has been the

close integration of teaching and research

facilities with the main hospital building to

promote interaction between researchers

and clinicians.”

Warren Kerr, Co-Director Fiona Stanley Hospital Design Collaboration.


rience for users with the goal of improving clini-cal outcomes.

tween the private and public health sys-tems and allowing the potential shar-ing of health facilities and services; and is also located near existing educa-tion infrastructure including Murdoch University and Challenger Institute of Technology, which will help to facilitate potential education and training part-nerships.

The location offers outstanding access – it will be within walking distance of the Murdoch bus and rail interchange and

easily reached via the Kwinana Free-way and other major roads to the north and south of Perth city. Fiona Stanley Hospital will certainly be the catalyst for local and regional growth and de-velopment, and will be the nucleus of a broader education, health and activity precinct commonly referred to as the Murdoch Activity Centre (MAC).

The hospital is also just 12km from Jan-dakot Airport. A helipad will be located on the roof of the hospital, enabling pa-tients to be transferred quickly to Fiona Stanley Hospital from the Royal Flying Doctor Service – who service people in


remote areas.

BWA: When did the project begin, and when is the estimated completion date? What is the total cost of the project?Mr Sebbes: Planning of Fiona Stanley Hospital began in 2005. Construction of the hospital began in September 2009 and it is expected to be finished in late 2013, ahead of the hospital’s opening in 2014. The $255.7 million Federal Gov-ernment-funded State rehabilitation service has been incorporated into the scope of Fiona Stanley Hospital, increas-ing the total value of the project from $1.76 billion to $2.02 billion.

BWA: What was the selection process for the contractors, suppliers and the proj-ect manager? Mr Sebbes: Selection of all contractors and suppliers to the project has been through a Government-led open tender process, with successful applicants cho-sen for the skill and experience they can bring to the project.

BWA: What will the final product be able to boast in the terms of services, beds, and research facilities? Mr Sebbes: When it opens in 2014, the 783-bed Fiona Stanley Hospital will be


It will offer

Comprehensive cancer services including ra-diation oncology, medical oncology, haema-tology including bone marrow transplants, chemotherapy, palliative care, a dedicated breast screening service and a related sur-gery services for a range of cancers

Paediatric, radiology; renal transplant and dialysis; obstetric and neonatology services

A mental health unit with a secure wing and a mother and baby unit

Child and adolescent services

A full range of acute medical and surgical services

Clinical services including coronary care, day admissions and endoscopy, hyperbaric medi-cine, intensive care, an operating suite and sleep studies

Ctate-of-the-art emergency care, supporting the major trauma centre

Cardiothoracic surgery, neurosurgery, ortho-paedics, plastics and general surgery

Facilities for pathology, bio-medical engi-neering and cell tissue manufacturing

A modern medical imaging centre, providing fast and accurate information to clinicians

A world-class medical research facility to be built in conjunction with universities and the Western Australian Institute for Medical Re-search (WAIMR)


home to a major trauma centre, a State rehabilitation service and the State burns service. BWA: In the terms of the educational aspect of the project, what special the-atres, and access will the hospital have?

Mr Sebbes: Fiona Stanley Hospital in-cludes a dedicated education facility which will offer a comprehensive range of training programs to students and staff across all health disciplines. The four-floor building will be located next to the main hospital and linked via a walk-way. It will include: a major, tiered lecture the-atre; two small, tiered lecture theatres; seminar and meeting rooms with audio-visual and teleconferencing capability; a clinical skills training centre including

a demonstration ward, a medical emer-gency training/simulation centre and six clinical skills training rooms; a man-agement of aggression training room; a clinical resource and information cen-tre; a computer learning centre; and un-dergraduate and postgraduate medical, nursing and health therapies education.

The clinical skills and simulation centre will enable health staff across all disci-plines to learn and develop skills in a range of techniques including emergen-cy care, advanced life support and com-munication and behavioural skills.

BWA: With application of connectivity technology like telehealth, how can you better service the community?


Mr. Sebbes: Staff at Fiona Stanley Hos-pital will be able to access state-of-the-art telehealth facilities which can be used for teaching and research as well as providing information and advice to patients who are not at the hospital, but are in rural and remote areas.

New telehealth equipment and addition-al staff in district health service centres will provide better and timely emergen-cy care between small hospitals, nurs-ing posts, district and regional health services and metropolitan emergency specialists. This helps improve access to emergency health care and reduce pa-tient isolation in rural and remote areas.

Because Fiona Stanley Hospital is a new hospital, services like telehealth will

benefit from new building designs that are compatible with the requirements of modern technology and working practic-es, enabling delivery of tangible innova-tions, with new technology at the fore-front of service solutions.

BWA: WAIMR has been a leader in adult medical research, how will the new facil-ity work with them?

Mr Sebbes: Fiona Stanley Hospital has demonstrated its commitment to being a high quality centre for research by dedicating $25m to the construction of the Western Australia Institute of Medi-cal Research - WAIMR - which is being built alongside it. The new WAIMR fa-cility will house researchers who will in-


vestigate the genetic and environmental causes of a range of diseases. WAIMR is WA’s premier adult medical research in-stitute and since its foundation in 1998, its researchers have identified numer-ous genes associated with diseases in-cluding leukaemia, diabetes, cancer and nerve, muscle and mental health disor-ders. Locating the new WAIMR facility next to Fiona Stanley Hospital aims to speed up the time it takes for patients to benefit from medical breakthroughs by breaking down traditional barriers and fostering closer working relationships between laboratory researchers and frontline clinical staff.

Fiona Stanley Hospital will be in the heart of a new health, research and education precinct at Murdoch that in-cludes, in addition to WAIMR, St John

of God Hospital Murdoch, Murdoch Uni-versity, and the Challenger Institute of Technology Murdoch. The precinct is modelled on international best practice and aims to foster greater collaboration and potential partnerships for the ben-efit of patients and staff.

BWA: How are you addressing staffing issues, what staff capacity are you look-ing at and in what roles?

Mr Sebbes: The Department of Health will be doing everything it can to re-tain existing staff and attract new staff across its facilities. A Workforce Plan de-signed to help retain and attract some of the finest clinical and non-clinical staff to WA Health is now under development. The Department is encouraging those interested in working at Fiona Stanley


Hospital to consider seeking employ-ment in tertiary care services at Royal Perth Hospital or Fremantle Hospital, from where some services will be trans-ferring to the new hospital.

BWA: How has the project been received locally?

Mr Sebbes: The project has been very well received by the local community that recognises the economic and social benefits it will bring to the area. Apart from direct job opportunities, indirect jobs are expected to grow through ser-vice providers (cafes, local suppliers etc). Fiona Stanley Hospital will be part of a vibrant community that will be well ser-viced by public transport, retail outlets, cafes and other recreational facilities in the Murdoch area.

BWA: How will the hospital function within this community and the sur-rounding communities, and will it be a primary care facility?

Mr Sebbes: Fiona Stanley Hospital will offer comprehensive healthcare services to communities in the south of Perth and across Western Australia. It will be a major adult trauma centre and will replace Fremantle Hospital as the 24-hour emergency care provider servicing Perth’s southern suburbs and regional Western Australia. Emergency will have 70 beds and treatment areas and will include a dedicated drop-off area for pa-tients, paediatric and adult short-stay zones and trauma, resuscitation and treatment areas.


A range of health therapy services will also be available at Fiona Stanley Hos-pital including clinical psychology, di-etetics and physiotherapy as part of the treatment process.

BWA: The role of technology is always an interesting topic, are there any in-novative processes and systems that the hospital will be instituting in order to stay on the cutting edge? Have you fu-ture proofed the design of the building so that it is ready for new innovations?

Mr Sebbes: Fiona Stanley Hospital will be a state-of-the-art facility, setting new benchmarks in information and commu-nications technology (ICT). Technology will be integrated into every level of the hospital and include improved access to medical records and access to all medi-cal library services such as online data-bases and medical journals. Fiona Stan-ley Hospital will rank among the best

in Australia – a leader in clinical care, research and education, supported by an innovative design that harnesses the latest scientific, technological and medi-cal developments.

The final design of Fiona Stanley Hos-pital reflects the Government’s determi-nation to create a hospital environment to assist patients to get well while their surroundings operate in an ecological-ly sustainable way. The architects and planners of Fiona Stanley Hospital used design techniques and elements - such as lighting, colour, texture, views, natu-ral light and art - that have been shown to have a healing and therapeutic effect on patients, staff, visitors and families.

The result is a light-filled design in which every patient room and the main concourse area have a view to the out-side world, making it a more welcoming environment for patients, visitors and


staff. Some 83 per cent of the patient rooms will be single rooms, which will al-low for improved infection control, fewer patient transfers and improved privacy and confidentiality. The landscape de-sign includes a wide range of outdoor gardens and parks for all to use.

The design has incorporated air control systems that promote the use of fresh air to improve the indoor air quality. Heat recovery ventilation will be used to pre-heat or pre-cool incoming air and reduce the reliance on air conditioning systems. The passive solar design of the hospi-tal will use the sun and natural light to maintain comfortable indoor tempera-tures and reduce the use of heating and cooling systems.

Bathrooms and other wet areas will fea-ture low-flow fixtures to minimise water consumption and rainwater will be col-lected for reuse in irrigation. The Fiona

Stanley Hospital Project has also made a large conservation and environment commitment. Some $5 million in envi-ronmental on-site and off-site initiatives will be undertaken throughout the proj-ect’s development. These include land-scaping, fauna relocation, seed collec-tion, weed control, grass tree relocation, rehabilitation in Beeliar Regional Park and preservation of conservation areas.

BWA: In closing, where do you see the hospital and its reputation in 5 years time??

Mr Sebbes: The first patients will be re-ceived in mid 2014. Our goal is to oper-ate one of Australia’s, and indeed the world’s, most advanced medical facilities which achieves its goals across patient care, research and the advancement of medicine and patient care, as well as so-cial and environmental responsibility.o


Rosewood Care has taken a new approach to the business of be-ing an aged care provider. Ma-

rio Zulbreti, the CEO of the group, says that it is this approach and their deep understanding of the issues and desires of their clientele that truly sets them apart from the crowd. They have had a long history of providing aged care in the area, being originally founded un-

der the name League of Help for the Elderly Inc in 1953. At that point their operational goal was to provide housing and facilities for aged people who were either chronically ill, or generally frail. In doing this, they helped increase the quality of life for their residents. As a bonus, this also benefitted the commu-nity by alleviating some of the pressure on the healthcare system by freeing up


beds in hospitals. By 2002 the League of Help had progressed to a point where they saw that a name change was nec-essary in order to better reflect their operations, and Rosewood Care Group Inc was born. Along the way Rosewood became a pioneer in many different as-pects of aged care, Zulbreti points out. They were the first to provide domicili-ary care and home help in Perth and brought Meals on Wheels to the area on a trial basis, a program that was ulti-mately expanded to a full five day ser-vice in 1955. This was not just a first for Perth, explains Zulbreti, but for all of Western Australia. By 1957 the League, as it was still called then, also had a hand in creating the first Senior Citizen Centre in Perth, situated on Cleaver St West, and continued to be supportive of

the seniors in their community at large. While they expanded their involvement, they also expanded their services. By the 1970s they had taken on an opportunity that presented by the Perth City Coun-cil. This opportunity eventually became the Lakeview Lodge, which waslater renamed Rosewood Care Leederville in 2009.

A history of care

“The most important thing about Rose-wood Care - to my mind - is that we have been providing care to Perth’s se-nior citizens for 54 years now in a vari-ety of roles,” says Zulbreti. “We really pioneered a lot of aspects for the senior citizens in Western Australia, but this was before the councils stepped in and


started to provide these services.” In the face of that takeover of responsibilities they divested themselves of operations that were taken on by the community and government. They then began to fo-cus their attention at expanding their home and residential care. “We now have two premier sites in the inner city, one in West Perth and one in Leederville,” he says. There are many features that make these locations attractive, says Zulberti listing them with enthusiasm. “They are very attractive not just for

their access – But in the terms of access it is not just beneficial for the residents, but it is beneficial for their families as well. If they have relatives that wish to visit them it’s easy, because they are at the junction of many arterial roads com-ing in from various directions.” He says that the culture that surrounds them is very cosmopolitan, and one that is still coming into its own. “They exist at a hub of social entertainment, as well as giving them access the cultural flavours of Perth.” He says that future planning


for the area promises to make it a very dynamic centre of activity, to which he thinks that the benefits are enormous.

He says that with their Leederville lo-cation they have more than adequate transportation – but again it is not just about that one aspect that makes the lo-cation appealing. He thinks that those living in their residences like to see a vibrant community around them as well as one encouraged within the liv-ing spaces themselves. “We are in the

process of building, or more accurately redeveloping, our Leederville into a 120 bed residential aged care facility. This is going to be a very upmarket accommo-dation,” he says. “With the West Perth Site we are in the process of master plan-ning, and in the near future we’re look-ing for joint venture partners to develop senior apartments and lifestyle accom-modations that will interface with the general community.” This means that they will have onsite restaurants, medi-cal centres and other facilities that will


directly link to the community that they are building. At the same time, they are looking to make sure that they develop the communities so that these services are available as in-home service as well. “It is going to be a multi-layered resi-dential and retail/commercial space,” he comments.

Taking a different viewRosewood does not treat their facilities as old age housing, nursing homes, or even retirement villages. Zulbreti sees these terms as limiting and inaccurate. In their communications and marketing material they refer to hotel services and head chefs. This is not something you


will see anywhere else. “Our head chef came second in the Seniors Competition in Hobart last year. We are very focused on lifestyle. I don’t like using that word, because it tends to be over used. I just like to think that we are creating living environments. We do not treat it like a place that people come to vegetate, there are many options. But the over-riding thing among all that we offer is care,” he stresses. “Providing good care – be that supervision or medication or the whole range of things that go on – is a way of enhancing people’s lives.” He says that this method of care giving can been seen in a very positive light. “I don’t think that residential care should be dismissed as some terrible way of liv-ing, in fact it is an opportunity and just another option rather than a life sen-tence.”

Zulbreti stays away from calling their facilities retirement villages, again be-cause he feels that the term is over used and misunderstood. “We aren’t going to use any of those stereotypical terms, it is just accommodations for seniors. The style and nature of the apartments will be very upmarket,” says Zulbreti, speak-ing about the West Perth site which will have similar accommodations when completed. Zulbreti drives home the point that they are facing people with more options than they historically have had. It is only through appealing to this new group of retirees, who have more disposable income than ever before, can they hope to be a viable option for living their golden years. With their long his-tory of pioneering in the industry and the care that is required, it is no doubt that they will be successful. o

http://www.morleydavis.com.au


Taking initiativeBeginning as a medical doctor, Dr Greg Roger, the CEO of Advanced Surgical Design and Manufacture (ASDM) re-alised that there were several challeng-es within the field of orthopaedics that he felt he could address. Dr Roger went ahead and furthered his education by getting a master’s degree in engineer-ing. “Originally I was thinking to go back to train as a surgeon but it turned out I was pretty inventive in terms of design-ing things so I went ahead and designed a few devices, one of which ended up be-ing made in Switzerland, and the other made locally,” says Dr Roger. It was at this time that it occurred to Dr Roger that there were no medical manufactur-ers in Australia, and he saw this as a

great opportunity. He sold the design which he had developed with an Aus-tralian surgeon to a US Company and began ASDM with the proceeds of that sale in 1994. Listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX), Dr Roger says that he chose a descriptor name with the view that it was important to tell people what exactly they did, as opposed to naming the company after something non-descriptive. The origi-nal plan, according to Dr Roger, was to have a small workshop in which they would make small devices but the total knee replacement that he co-designed was being made in Switzerland and he thought it would be beneficial to bring it home to Australia. ASDM now manu-factures joint replacements and other medical devices, leading the field with their in house designs and innovations.ASDM both designs and manufactures

-------------------------------------------------------

-------------------------------------------------------Greg Roger


internally but they also work with exter-nal surgeons to “bring products to life.” They offer consulting services to other companies or individuals who want to develop devices or start biotech com-panies. There are three biotech compa-nies that are actually housed inside of ASDM; by being embedded within the company, ASDM is able to provide them with the most efficient consultant ser-vices ranging from accounting to qual-ity management to manufacturing. “We’ve also done consulting for some of the biggest companies in our field,” says Dr Roger with pride.

19 years of clinical historyThe Active Total Knee Replacement is ASDM’s feature product, and is backed up by 19 years of successful clinical his-tory. “Most of the major competitors

have less than half of that clinical his-tory,” says Dr Roger. Active Knee is a total knee replacement prosthesis and it is both a cement-less and cemented, metal/polyethylene, cruciate retaining design. When surgeons look to ASDM, they are more than comfortable know-ing that the devices have performed for nearly two decades.

Another reason surgeons choose ASDM is due to their vast range of patient sizes; so they have a better chance of finding a good fit for their patients with ASDM. “The reason we have a larger range is because the whole thing is driven from the clinical perspective. I still assist in the surgeries with the surgeon co-de-signer on Monday mornings and if we want something we just go ahead and start making it. It is surgeon driven – and we need to make sure we have the


right solutions for the patients,” says Dr Roger.

A rewarding industryThe field of medicine has always been well respected, however with such re-spect and honour comes the require-ment to maintain the highest stan-dards. “With rewards comes the need to have the highest standards of qual-ity. We do our engineering diligence and people in our field need to understand the risks involved. Your devices may not work for all patients – so it is both tense and rewarding,” explains Dr Roger. He says it is “a very satisfying field to be in”, but he also emphasises the risks in-volved. Not only will there be times that a device may not work for a patient but there are also incidents in this field of product recalls in which thousands of patients have a device that simply isn’t working. While this has not happened to ASDM’s products the risks are real and ASDM continues to look for the best possible solutions for patients.

ASDM has noticed there has been great-er acceptance and use of joint replace-ment in recent years, and attributes it to a couple of different factors. Firstly, there has been greater participation across the community in much more de-structive sports. Additionally, the aging population is remaining active, which has long term health benefits for them but also causes other problems. “People are pounding their joints too fast and thus their joints are giving out earlier,” says Dr Roger. “Twenty years ago if a joint lasted ten years it probably out-lasted you but nowadays with younger patients who are going to live longer

there is a need for a joint replacement to last much longer.” Twenty years is the minimum time that ASDM aims for their joint replacements to last before going on to replace it once again.

ChallengesWorking to improve the lives of others is a challenge all in itself, but it is a challenge ASDM is willing to take on. In addition to the obvious challenges of working in orthopaedics, ASDM has to compete with several other major medi-cal device manufacturers. Well funded competitors have introduced new vari-ants within the marketplace that may or may not have any clinical benefit. Despite competitors, ASDM still has an advantage in the market due to their longstanding clinical history. “Whenev-er our competitors have some sort of in-


http://www.formrite.com.au


novation, it takes years before you can actually tell if anything is really good,” explains Dr Roger.

In addition to their own company’s stan-dards, regulatory oversight and rules within the industry have been getting tougher and tougher over the last few decades. Dr Roger remarks that he has also noticed that the market funding is decreasing. “The available budget for medical devices is less and less and now you’ve got the combination of increas-ing costs of doing business just due to the regulatory compliance, and govern-ments wanting to cut the amount they spend on their health budget,” says Dr Roger.

Giving backASDM contributes to their charity Heart Kids, that focuses on providing children and their families who have dealt with congenital heart disease extra support and care. In addition to this they also work with the Salvation Army assist-ing to fund their street kids program. ASDM recognises the importance of giv-ing back, which is why they have taken the initiative to get involved.

In regards to green initiatives, ASDM has made a major effort towards recy-cling which in their industry is crucial. While they haven’t been able to do a whole lot about the electricity of the ma-chines, they have made a major change


in terms of their scrap parts. “The big-gest benefit we’ve been able to choose for the environment is reducing our scrap rate. By tightening up manufacturing control procedures, it means you don’t scrap as many parts – and each scrap part is a carbon footprint in itself,” ex-plains Dr Roger.

The future of ASDMWhile ASDM will always be up against the multibillion dollar companies, they welcome the challenge with open arms. “We’re growing significantly year on year,” says Dr Roger. ASDM is always looking for the latest innovation in med-ical devices. “We would love to see the day when we replace a joint with your

own biological joint,” says Dr Roger. o


Very few jobs can give you the satisfaction of po-tentially saving lives. The people at Medical Developments International (MDI), one of Aus-

tralia’s leading specialised healthcare companies, are among the few who have jobs that do. “A lot of our prod-ucts are life-saving devices, and that gives us a certain amount of pride and satisfaction,” says John Sharman, Chief Executive Officer at MDI. “We’re delivering things that facilitate better patient outcomes; that’s what our company is all about. Everyone is very focused on the end user of our products and we feel good about the fact that we’re helping other people.”

MDI was established in 1971, and became a publicly listed company on the Australian Stock Exchange in 2003. Both MDI’s head office and manufacturing fa-


cilities are located in Victoria, Austra-lia. With an industry leading range of products in the areas of pain manage-ment, asthma and resuscitation, and veterinary equipment, MDI continually provides healthcare professionals and patients with innovative medical solu-tions. “We’ve got pretty accomplished team of individuals that are very fo-cused on capitalizing on our products,

delivering appropriate solutions to our clients and customers, and the products that we’ve got have market leader posi-tions,” says Sharman.

A superior product“Penthrox in itself is unique. It’s an icon-ic brand; it’s been around for 25 years. It’s well understood and well-liked by users.And there are many more applica-tions that we are pursuing for Penthrox in Australia and out of state.” Penthrox (methoxyflurane), which MDI manu-factures and markets, is an inhaler for pain relief. It’s MDI’s leadingproduct, one that Sharman says has given them significant opportunities to move for-ward and develop new markets, both in Australia and internationally(including the UK, France and Belgium in particu-lar).

One of the chief advantages of Penthrox – what separates it from other pain re-lievers – is the fact that it’s non-narcot-ic, and non-addictive. “It’s an amazing plus,” Sharman says. “It can be given to children. It can be used in the Middle East. It can be used all over the world

‹#› Annual Report 2010

PRODUCT PORTFOLIO

Pharmaceutical

Analgesia Penthrox®

Medical

Asthma Space Chamber® aerosol spacer

Breath-Alert® peak fl ow meter

Face masks EZ-fi t silicone and disposable face masks

Oxygen OXI-port ™ oxygen therapy device

OXI-sok™ oxygen therapy device

OXI-pro™ oxygen resuscitation device

OXI-life™ oxygen resuscitation device

OXI-saver™ closed circuit oxygen resuscitation device

OXI-dive™ closed circuit oxygen resuscitation device

OXI-vac™ suction system

Regulators KDK™ regulator/fl ow meter with oxygen fl ush

Absorbers KAB™ carbon dioxide absorber

Veterinary

Anaesthesia MK5 closed circuit anaesthetic machine

LANA closed circuit anaesthetic machine

Mini-KOM™ anaesthetic machine

Breath-Alert® breathing monitor

4 Annual Report 2010


where mind-altering and behavioural-changing drugs and substances aren’t liked or accepted. Penthrox can provide significant pain relief to whole commu-nities, if not countries, of people.” Anoth-er main advantage: it’s an inhaler,it has a quick onset and is easy to use. Unlike several other drugs that require a doc-tor to provide full monitoring, Penthrox can be self-administered. Penthrox is appropriate for patients involved in car accidents, workplace injuries, bro-ken fingers, lacerations, wound dress-ing, burn victims and more. “Anywhere there is pain,” says Sharman, “Penthrox is ideal.”

“Other advantages to Penthrox include the time it takes to recover (15 to 20 minutes after being administeredPen-throx, some patients are able to drive a car) personalisation (it is self-admin-istered, so you can determine your own level of use – we all have different pain thresholds, one size does not fit all), and cost (there is no need to pay for a profes-sional to administer it, like with mor-phine). “Almost any way you look at it,” Sharman says,“Penthrox is the superior product.”

Manufacturing a drug like Penthrox is rewarding in itself, Sharman reiterates. “The fact that we can help better pa-tient outcomes through the managing of pain is an excellent thing, and we’re very proud of that.” He does say that Penthrox doesn’t save lives, physicians do – but there is definitely value in help-ing to manage people’s time in crisis sit-uations. MDI often receives letters and testimonials from people who’ve used Penthrox, thanking them for making it. “That’s a weekly occurrence for us and that makes us feel good.”

Penthrox is not MDI’s only product. Their asthmaSpace Chamber range is also market-leading. “Around these products we’ve built a suite of other medical devices and equipment to sup-port delivery better patient care in the respiratory field,” says Sharman.

The best kind of challenge

People will always need their medicine, but whether the medical market is re-cession proof or not remains to be seen, says Sharman. Some of the big pharma-ceutical companies have been struggling

‹#› Annual Report 2010

PRODUCT PORTFOLIO

Pharmaceutical

Analgesia Penthrox®

Medical

Asthma Space Chamber® aerosol spacer

Breath-Alert® peak fl ow meter

Face masks EZ-fi t silicone and disposable face masks

Oxygen OXI-port ™ oxygen therapy device

OXI-sok™ oxygen therapy device

OXI-pro™ oxygen resuscitation device

OXI-life™ oxygen resuscitation device

OXI-saver™ closed circuit oxygen resuscitation device

OXI-dive™ closed circuit oxygen resuscitation device

OXI-vac™ suction system

Regulators KDK™ regulator/fl ow meter with oxygen fl ush

Absorbers KAB™ carbon dioxide absorber

Veterinary

Anaesthesia MK5 closed circuit anaesthetic machine

LANA closed circuit anaesthetic machine

Mini-KOM™ anaesthetic machine

Breath-Alert® breathing monitor

4 Annual Report 2010


in recent years due to cost increases and distribution challenges. MDI, how-ever, has managed to dodge some of the challenges that have been facing other companies. The challenges they do have are the best kind. “Our challenges are to capitalize on what is a unique, iconic,

well researched product, which has a number of very significant advantages to it,” Sharman says. “Even within the industry there are challenges, but for us the challenges are all capitalizing on the upsides we’ve got.”

MDI currently has about 50 employees, including those on the manufacturing and distribution side of the business. Sales come in at around 9 million dol-lars a year. As Sharman says, they’re still relatively small, but they’ve got large ambitions. And they’ve got every-thing in place to make those ambitions

Annual Report 2010 9

MVP TO RE-INVIGORATE ITS VET PRODUCT RANGE

VETERINARY

Products

• Anaesthetic machines

• Vaporisers

• Breathing monitors

The Market

MVP offers a range of open and closed circuit anaesthetic machines to the veterinary market, which are popularly known as Komesaroff anaesthetic machines. The Company has developed a unique market position regarding the design, manufacture and supply of closed circuit anaesthetic machines to this particular niche market in Europe.

The majority of MVP’s veterinary products continue to be sold in Europe through our distributor, Kruuse (one of Europe’s largest veterinary distribution companies). During 2010 a key Australian commercial relationship was agreed with a major distributor of Veterinary products in Australia.

New Product Development

MVP’s Breath-Alert® breathing monitor (Mark IV) continued to sell well on new but simple selling features such as size (smaller unit), ease of use and battery longevity. MVP continues to invest resources to develop a more complete range of veterinary products to assist with future sales growth.

The Company has developed a unique market position regarding the design, manufacture and supply of closed circuit anaesthetic machines


PHARMACEUTICAL

REVIEW OF OPERATIONS

Building our Business

Penthrox sales in FY10 were supported by the strength of the Australian business in Ambulance, Military, Dentistry and Aesthetic Medicine.

Penthrox continues to be used as a “fi rst line” product for the treatment of pain in trauma by Ambulance Services in all States and Territories of Australia. MVP continued the promotional focus into the Australian Ambulance services ensuring that the strong positioning of Penthrox is maintained. Moving forward, the strategy to strengthen the association and collaboration with all Ambulance Services will include offering a more complete range of products required by the Ambulance Services, enhanced training support, direct communication with front line healthcare professionals and the generation of clinical data for specifi c applications.

A NEW WAY FOR DOING BUSINESS

Since the beginning of 2010 MVP has undertaken a number of initiatives relating to its existing business relationships. Our focus is on delivering shareholder value and to that end we have completed new commercial agreements with our business partners in

- UAE- New Zealand- Australia • Dentistry • Cosmetic • Podiatry

In addition we have undertaken a number of initiatives with suppliers of product to signifi cantly reduce the cost to MVP. Whilst these initiatives will take some time to work through our supply chain, we expect collectively they will deliver material benefi t MVP within the next 12 months.

NEW AREAS FOR INVESTIGATION

Overseas Activities

Sales into recently approved countries

New ZealandNew Zealand sales were slightly lower FY2010 due to pricing and product mix issues. MVP have now renegotiated our agreement with the New Zealand distributors; henceforth making the price more attractive to the Ambulance Services and the Military in New Zealand. With a strong focus from our sales team, MVP expects a strong growth in FY11.

Eastern EuropeDuring the year MVP made its fi rst sales into Azerbaijan and Georgia, on top of our recent fi rst sales to Moldova.

MVP expects each of these markets to deliver increased sales during 2011.

Middle EastThe time taken to develop the Middle East market has not met MVP’s expectations. MVP intends to continue to invest resources to establish Penthrox in the Middle East. A new commercial strategy has been implemented which we believe should lead to much improved results in the future.

Sales into the Research and Veterinary marketsRegulatory approval was achieved in FY09 from the FDA for the veterinary use of Methoxyfl urane in the US under the trade name: Anafane®.

THE INTERNATIONAL REGISTRATION PROGRAM FOR PENTHROX

We continue to expand our international registration program for Penthrox. Penthrox continues to remain a market leading analgesic with signifi cant opportunity in new markets and market segments. To that end MVP have applications for registrations submitted, and / or we are in discussions with the relevant regulatory in another eight countries.


BUILDING OUR PRODUCT RANGE

MEDICAL DEVICES

MVPs focus in FY11 will be to add to our established product range, to build on the solid foundation that has been established with our current partnerships in Australia and overseas and at the same time develop new collaborations for future growth. Core to the growth is the development of new and improved models of:

• Asthma Space Chambers;

• Penthrox Inhaler;

• Masks;

• Tourniquets; and

• Emergency Medicine consumable equipment

Asthma Devices

MVP‘s Asthma devices business has been strong for many years and continues to provide solid sales and profi t.

The success of this business over the last 5 years has been due to three key factors:

• The strength of our Asthma devices business with our partner in New Zealand.

• The strength of the Allersearch brand in Australian Hospitals and Pharmacies and our distribution partner.

• Consistent sales of our range of Asthma products through established partners in various countries around the world.

Product Development

MVPs Space Chamber is well known in the market place as the “Rolls Royce” brand and it offers the greatest opportunity for future growth in the Asthma devices market. To assist in future growth MVP plans to continue to develop new and improved Space Chambers to assist with differentiation and local and international penetration.



come true. Penthrox and the rest of their medical equipment have truly international applications, so MDI is in the process of conducting a clini-cal trial in Europe. Sharman hopes and expects this will open up the Eu-ropean market to them. “We’ve been expecting it to be the latter half of 2012 when we start to open up those markets,” he says.“So it’s not too far away and we’re already planning for it.” When they get there, the plan is to target accident and emergency centres

in the UK and France. Their product, Sharman says, is a mature product, and already approved by the medical fra-ternity. Penthrox is already being sold to dentists, surgeons, doctors, sports arenas, emergency services, and hospi-tals – anybody looking for better ways to deliver pain relief to their patients. “We’re talking to a lot of people already about how we can get our products into their jurisdiction, and we continue to provide the solutions that are needed.” A move into Europe isn’t the only thing

they’re planning. MDI already has the capacity to increase production in their Melbourne facility, and Sharman says that they’re currently looking at ways to achieve three or four times their current output to meet the potential demand go-ing forward. “That part of the business is looking very good.”

“I think in fiveyears’ time, Medical De-velopments International won’t be rec-ognisable,” Sharman says. “We’ll have markets in 25 countries. We’ll be four times the size we are today if not larg-er.” He says they have a plethora of ex-pansion opportunities in front of them, and in order to deliver a complete suite of emergency medicine they are court-ing development partners. They’re also developing new respiratory devices and equipment that they believe will hold leading positions in the field. The future is looking bright for MDI.“If you want to put it in numbers, in five years we want to be a 40 to 50 million dollar sales com-pany.” o


PHARMACEUTICAL

REVIEW OF OPERATIONS

Building our Business

Penthrox sales in FY10 were supported by the strength of the Australian business in Ambulance, Military, Dentistry and Aesthetic Medicine.

Penthrox continues to be used as a “fi rst line” product for the treatment of pain in trauma by Ambulance Services in all States and Territories of Australia. MVP continued the promotional focus into the Australian Ambulance services ensuring that the strong positioning of Penthrox is maintained. Moving forward, the strategy to strengthen the association and collaboration with all Ambulance Services will include offering a more complete range of products required by the Ambulance Services, enhanced training support, direct communication with front line healthcare professionals and the generation of clinical data for specifi c applications.

A NEW WAY FOR DOING BUSINESS

Since the beginning of 2010 MVP has undertaken a number of initiatives relating to its existing business relationships. Our focus is on delivering shareholder value and to that end we have completed new commercial agreements with our business partners in

- UAE- New Zealand- Australia • Dentistry • Cosmetic • Podiatry

In addition we have undertaken a number of initiatives with suppliers of product to signifi cantly reduce the cost to MVP. Whilst these initiatives will take some time to work through our supply chain, we expect collectively they will deliver material benefi t MVP within the next 12 months.

NEW AREAS FOR INVESTIGATION

Overseas Activities

Sales into recently approved countries

New ZealandNew Zealand sales were slightly lower FY2010 due to pricing and product mix issues. MVP have now renegotiated our agreement with the New Zealand distributors; henceforth making the price more attractive to the Ambulance Services and the Military in New Zealand. With a strong focus from our sales team, MVP expects a strong growth in FY11.

Eastern EuropeDuring the year MVP made its fi rst sales into Azerbaijan and Georgia, on top of our recent fi rst sales to Moldova.

MVP expects each of these markets to deliver increased sales during 2011.

Middle EastThe time taken to develop the Middle East market has not met MVP’s expectations. MVP intends to continue to invest resources to establish Penthrox in the Middle East. A new commercial strategy has been implemented which we believe should lead to much improved results in the future.

Sales into the Research and Veterinary marketsRegulatory approval was achieved in FY09 from the FDA for the veterinary use of Methoxyfl urane in the US under the trade name: Anafane®.

THE INTERNATIONAL REGISTRATION PROGRAM FOR PENTHROX

We continue to expand our international registration program for Penthrox. Penthrox continues to remain a market leading analgesic with signifi cant opportunity in new markets and market segments. To that end MVP have applications for registrations submitted, and / or we are in discussions with the relevant regulatory in another eight countries.


BUILDING OUR PRODUCT RANGE

MEDICAL DEVICES

MVPs focus in FY11 will be to add to our established product range, to build on the solid foundation that has been established with our current partnerships in Australia and overseas and at the same time develop new collaborations for future growth. Core to the growth is the development of new and improved models of:

• Asthma Space Chambers;

• Penthrox Inhaler;

• Masks;

• Tourniquets; and

• Emergency Medicine consumable equipment

Asthma Devices


The success of this business over the last 5 years has been due to three key factors:

• The strength of our Asthma devices business with our partner in New Zealand.

• The strength of the Allersearch brand in Australian Hospitals and Pharmacies and our distribution partner.

• Consistent sales of our range of Asthma products through established partners in various countries around the world.

Product Development

MVPs Space Chamber is well known in the market place as the “Rolls Royce” brand and it offers the greatest opportunity for future growth in the Asthma devices market. To assist in future growth MVP plans to continue to develop new and improved Space Chambers to assist with differentiation and local and international penetration.



It has often been said by many people, and for many different reasons, that the true measure of the greatness of any society is how they treat their

elderly. While the saying’s origins have been lost over time, the consensus is that it holds to be true. Over time, this idiom g has grown to include society’s cultural minorities, the sick, and the young. The idea remains that the goodness of a people, a town, a country, or a civilization can be measured by how it cares for those who cannot care for themselves. In Australia, this role was historically administered by religious organisations and charities. As the need and requirements for aged care grew, the government began to take over a portion of that role, with private enterprise on their heels. Today, those of retiring age are far better off than they have been in the past, and the industry has changed from one described as “God’s waiting room”, into a real choice for seniors. Aged Care Association Australia (ACAA) stands as a professional, national industry association, that caters to providers of residential and community aged care services. Beginning as an industry association that included private hospitals, the organisation has had a number of different lives and roles. “In one iteration or another, our history goes back to at least the 1950s,” says Rod Young, CEO of ACAA.

“We are an industry employer’s association representing providers of retirement living, seniors housing, community care and residential care,” says

Young. “We represent about a thousand service providers in all Australian jurisdictions, other than in the Northern Territory.” This means that almost every aged care provider in their geographical operational reach has some involvement with ACAA. As the only organisation that represents care providers from the private and voluntary sectors on a national basis, national and territorial events are of particular importance to ACAA. “This year we are looking at a major review of the industry and its future directions. This has been undertaken by the Productivity Commission.” Young, and the ACAA, have already had a chance to preview the draft report back in January. “It was made with consultations with the unions, consumers and providers.” The report, released this August, is being considered in detail and the ramifications are being discussed. “By November we hope to have developed a fairly strong focus for our annual conference to look at the likely impact on business sustainability, future business structures, and what impacts that the report will have on models of care.”

Bringing everyone togetherThe ACAA annual conference draws many of their members, and industry experts. This year’s Congress is the Association’s 30th, and will be held between the 6th and 8th of November. The tongue in cheek title is


‘Magical Mystery Tour – the long and winding road’, and it speaks to a generation that is serving the aged community as well as those living in it. It promises to be yet another informative and innovative showcase of industry developments and technology. Young jokes that they have not received any communications from Yoko asking them for a cut – yet. “We’re a federated organisation with offices in each state – which are stand-alone legal entities in their own right. They all run substantial education programs, but we run a national program each year, which is this Congress,” he says. He notes that the Congress attracts over a hundred independent exhibitors each year. “It has become a great focal point for our members and those involved in the industry, providing them great opportunities to network and learn. It also has become a bit of an end-of-year celebration opportunity as well.” Part of this celebration includes the presentation of ACAA’s awards, in which they have several categories including Employer of Choice Awards, and Building Awards.

An industry of changeOne concern that ACAA is looking at right now is the age profile of the workers within the industry. “The average age of a worker in the industry is 52 years of age for our registered nurses, and about 47 for our other workers and care givers,” says Young. This is an older than average workforce, and one of the things that ACAA is dealing with is how to present the Aged Care industry as an attractive employment and career opportunity for younger workers. This is especially important since it is predicted that those that are of retirement age will outnumber those in the workforce. If this trend continues it is possible that aged care may be one of the largest growth industries in both Australia and the world. “It will almost certainly have a major impact between those receiving care and those providing it,” says Young.

“There are several interlocking issues here. Current projections on our industry growth and workforce-


demand over the next 30 to 35 years suggest the number of people requiring care and services will multiply by at least double. While the number of workers in the industry and associated fields will triple.” Young admits that these stats make the industry look like a stable boom industry. “The demand for services for when people reach their 80th year and older, and when you look at the growth in demand for the very old age group – it will quadruple over the next 30 years.” This is a result of people, in the developed world, living longer, healthier lives.

These are changes that Young sees ACAA preparing the industry for, but Young also says that they have already been there to help it achieve the development level it enjoys now. “30 years ago nursing homes were used for a whole range of different purposes: rehabilitation, recuperation, long term low level care servicing, chronic disease, people suffering from age related disabilities, and of course the frail aged,” he says. “Today, the nursing home is almost entirely populated by the frail aged, and that includes those who are suffering from the various dementias. It is a very homogenous group of care recipients, numbering 160 thousand plus residents and 50 000 community care recipients.” He says that there are at least 5000 people in the system that are considered young chronic disease sufferers, or who have brain acquired injury. He believes that this is an inappropriate setting for both the recipient and the caregiver, to receive care. “When you are looking at a change in the resident profile, and the services they demand, you see this very rapid shift in the last 20 years, where the average age at entry has grown by about 8 years.” This means that those entering the system now are not the socially active group that the industry of the past were used to dealing with. They more and more often require specialised high-care treatment and attention.

For the next five years, Young predicts that the Government will largely accept the substantial recommendations that the Productivity Commission’s report holds. “It will have a significant impact on how aged care is delivered in the future. Some of the likely impacts are going to be in medical services,” he says. After the report, he hopes rebates for medical services will improve GP funding. Given the systems recommended in the report, Rod Young believes the industry will generate new methods for providing services to clients in their care. The ACAA will take a leading role in the education and training of team-members, in order to do what they have been doing for over 60 years – provide a guiding hand. o

Rod YoungCEO, ACAA


Dynamic duoIn 1984, Padman Health Care established its first residential aged care facilities in South Australia, not knowing that it would soon grow to be the one of the largest and most respected private opera-tors of aged care services in Australia. PHC offers various accom-modation options with both high and low care service options avail-able. PHC is currently under the management of owners Viv and Florence Padman. “I studied economics and I was involved in the linen supply industry and I joined this industry, acquiring our first facility in 1984 – and I did so because my wife had a background in nursing. Today, she is our Executive Director of Nursing,” says Viv Padman, the Managing Director at PHC. Viv and his wife each bring their own knowledge, skills, and personality to the company and together they have been able to build PHC to what it is to-day. In addition to his background in economics, Viv also serves on the board Aged Care Association at the state level and he also represents the state at the federal level. At this time PHC has 12


facilities in South Australia and two in Queensland, as well as 3 additional fa-cilities which are currently on the draw-ing board. “We’ve acquired the land and we are drawing plans,” says Viv. All fa-cilities offer the same services however they do vary in size; while some are large enough to accommodate up to 130 residents, some can only accommodate 40 beds. Despite size, all PHC facilities have one thing in common – quality care at all levels.

A luxurious experience“In this industry there are ordinary fa-cilities and what is known as extra ser-vice facilities – these are the categories of residential aged care that are permis-sible under the Aged Care Act,” says Viv. The newer facilities that PHC has built are much more luxurious and include a full range of services for residents. “They’re more like five star hotels than conventional facilities.” Accommodation levels vary based on the needs of their


http://www.haddadpharmacygroup.com.au


residents therefore different clientele are able to participate at different lev-els, based on their abilities. Many resi-dents are able to take full advantage of some of the very interesting activities that PHC offers whereas the more el-derly residents tend to find it beyond their ability. Within the PHC facilities there are gyms, theatres, hairdressing salons, and internet cafes among other things. PHC facilities also plan differ-ent types of recreational activities and outing for their residents ranging from visits to restaurants and happy hour to yoga, bingo and other board games.

Trends and challengesAs the demand for aged care facilities has grown over the last few decades, PHC has noticed that both clientele and their relatives have become rather se-lective and their expectations have in-creased significantly. In the past, when PHC first joined the industry it was rather common to have multi-bed wards, however, nowadays the minimum stan-dard of accommodation is single bed-rooms with en suites. The industry as a whole is leaning much more towards quality care and comfort for residents, which is definitely a positive change that PHC has embraced and is in sup-port of. The supply in the industry has increased quite a bit which means that PHC, among other facilities will have lower occupancy, due to the choices that consumers now have. “The average oc-cupancy across the country 20 years ago was 99 per cent and it is now down to 93 per cent,” says Viv. Incoming residents have much more choice as to which fa-cility they choose and which one best


suits their needs. Additionally, there have been substantial investments in the industry, therefore greatly improv-ing the quality of accommodations that are being offered.

In regards to challenges within the in-dustry, many changes will soon be tak-ing place as the Australian Government has commissioned a study into the in-dustry by the Productivity Commis-sion. The Commission is interested in the current structure of the industry. “It is a much regulated environment,” says Viv. “There are licenses required to operate aged care facilities and the fees and charges are all controlled by the Commonwealth Government. In the draft proposal of the productivity report that has been released, they have rec-ommended significant deregulation of the industry and this will be a major

change.” The final report is currently with the Minister for health and aging and will be made public in the months to come, with significant changes pro-posed for the industry.

Technologically advancedAs technology changes day after day and year after year, PHC has found countless ways of implementing it into their everyday practices to improve their communication and service to residents. In comparison to only 5 or 10 years back, the communication between staff and residents is much better. “All of our staff carry decked phones so if a resident rings a bell, the staff member can speak to them wherever they are let them know that they’ll be there in five minutes or one minute or what-

http://www.perks.com.au


ever it may be,” says Viv. “We find that that has really helped to keep residents calm.” Most of PHC’s facilities are now equipped with Skype which allows both audio and visual contact with relatives – particularly those that are overseas. Additionally, nursing notes are now al computerised whereas they were all handwritten in the past which is great for both organisation and referring back for any reason. Lastly, PHC has imple-mented a camera monitoring system which is reviewed by head office. These cameras ensure that the head office can view what is happening at any facility at any given time which not only im-proves the security of residents but is

useful in ensuring that the residents are receiving the care and treatment they deserve.

PHC currently has 1000 staff members, across a variety of different divisions of their facilities. PHC understands the importance of their care givers to their industry which is why it is an area that they take continue to invest in. “We have a huge investment of skilled staff based at our head office who are actively involved in two areas – one is education and the other is monitoring quality and implementing improvements,” says Viv. PHC has encountered some problems with attracting suitably trained staff


so they met this challenge by develop-ing their own training school of nurs-ing. They are a registered training or-ganisation (RTO) and they train their own caregivers. PHC has a huge focus on the quality aspect of their facilities which starts with their care givers. “All of our facilities have received the maxi-mum accreditation period that is avail-able and they have all met the 44 out of 44 standards that are required by the aged care standards agency,” says Viv.

The future of PHCPHC has been very much focussed on construction over the last several years

which is why after the completion of their next three facilities they will be placing their attention elsewhere. “We would like to focus further on care de-livery and look at adding value to resi-dents’ lives. We would like to do some research and explore whether residents could interact with the community in some more ways than they are doing right now,” says Viv. PHC is definitely doing their part to make sure residents are getting the most possible value out of their stays at PHC. o


With thirteen retirement vil-lages across New Zealand, Summerset Retirement

Villages is now the third largest op-erator for retirement living in the country. In 2010 it was named best retirement village operator in both New Zealand and Australia, beating out more than 1100 other operators at the Australasian Over-50s Hous-

ing Awards.

Summerset started in 1994 as a pro-vider of rest home and continuing care facilities. In 1997 it had built its first 14 retirement village residential units, and had begun providing a full range of aged care services and liv-ing options for residents. Today Sum-merset has grown in both size and


recognition to become a leader in its field. And there are no signs of slow-ing down.

Innovation in designSummerset has developed some of the most innovative retirement hous-ing options. The company has an al-liance with Lifemark, ensuring they

can provide their customers a prod-uct that meets their ever-changing needs. Using the Lifemark standard of building and design, Summerset ensures all homes are easily acces-sible and adaptable. There are 33 different design features including widened doors and passageways for wheelchair accessibility, flat surface showers and level entry included in


Lifemark’s independent standard.

“It’s all about innovation. There are simple things we can do to make every-day living significantly better than at your traditional home in the suburbs. The homes that we provide in our vil-lages have various functionalities that change as the need of the customer change,” says Summerset CEO Norah Barlow. But, while Summerset aims to take precautions and offer residents accessibility, they never want to create a design which makes their residents “feel old”. Instead they see it as making sure the newest stage in their lives is one to be made the most of.

Norah has been involved with Sum-merset for ten years and is well-known to be an incredible leader and asset for

the company. She says there are certain attributes that people are looking for when choosing a village and Summer-set’s goal is to not only meet these ex-pectations but rather surpass them.

For example, Summerset unlike many of its competitors allows pets within its villages – and actually encourages it knowing the benefits these compan-ions bring to older people. The compa-ny encourages residents to incorporate their own personalities and style into their homes. “If our residents want to paint their walls bright pink then they should! Even though they’re older they are still the same people they always were,” says Norah. The company has the attitude that if it is your home, it needs to reflect you.

http://www.redican-allwood.co.nz


Trends and challengesNo industry is without its challenges, and when working with people and their homes it is crucial to be able to adapt to the industry’s changing demands. There has been a definite increase in the larger providers of aged care in the past few years, and with this the struc-ture of the industry has changed signifi-cantly. “The customers’ understanding of the retirement village concept versus the previous perception of a rest home has dramatically shifted,” Norah says.

Summerset residents report a 96 per cent satisfaction level in 2010 and this can be attributed to a range of different factors. Summerset offers several differ-ent types of accommodations for its resi-dents. Residents have a choice between three different types of accommodation with different levels of care, all encom-passing nothing less than the Summer-set standard of excellence. Residents can choose to live independently in a

villa in which they have complete con-trol over all aspects of their lives. Here they benefit from being part of a com-munity and can socialise with other in-dividuals living in the same community. Or residents can opt for supported liv-ing in one of Summerset’s apartments. Supported living is great for individu-als who require care within the home. Lastly, Summerset offers care apart-ments and has care centers providing rest home and hospital level care. These offer dedicated, around the clock care to those who require it. There are always Registered Nurses and caregivers avail-able. Additionally, medical practitio-ners, podiatrists, and hairdressers visit the villages on a regular basis. Whatev-er the option, all residents are promised the best care, certainty, and a respectful environment to call their home.

Treating people as peopleThe reason Summerset villages have become such a desirable places to live is


due to the company’s simple philosophy of treating people as people. “We under-stand that people can make their own decisions and choices which is why we don’t restrict,” says Norah. Summerset takes their residents wants and needs seriously and is always actively listen-ing to ensure they are met. Working in this industry, caregivers often lose sight of the work they do and the people with whom they`re dealing with, which is why Summerset undergoes a rigorous selection and recruitment process to find the best employees. Through excel-lent training, support, and by develop-ing a culture within their villages, Sum-merset then works to make employees feel valued. “From Norah all the way through to our caregivers, the value set that our staff holds are very similar to the value set that our customers hold –

we get it. When someone is talking to us, we get it and we try our best to un-derstand them. It’s something that peo-ple have actually commented on – that we’re people people,” says Tristan Saun-ders, Summerset’s General Manager of Marketing and Sales. He says the com-pany aims to welcome people and show their residents and potential custom-ers the same respect and care that they would treat people with within their own homes. “It’s the simple values like making new people feel comfortable, welcoming them, offering them a drink and a seat– all in a genuine and honest way.”The Summerset differenceSummerset aims high and has a long-held goal of separating itself from its competitors. “We believe that we can do this using an inherent accessibility in

http://www.smpsolutions.co.nz


4

Further to these assurances, Summerset gives you three absolute promises, to help make your decision easier.

First promise – to give you a choice of homes so that you can choose a real home that is purpose-designed for your stage of life.

Second promise – should you need a little extra help or care, this can be provided to you in your own home. We also have care apartments and in most villages Care Centres should these suit you or your partner better.

Third promise – if you do not love our friendly welcome, our way of life, the services we offer and most importantly the home you have chosen, within ninety days you are free to move on and we will refund your money in full.*

*Some conditions apply, available from your Village Manager.

THE RIGHT HOMEChoose a home that’s ideal for your stage of life.

THE RIGHT CAREAt the right time, in the place that’s right for you.LOVE IT – OR YOUR MONEY BACK*

90 days to be sure your new home is right – or your money back.

When you come to one of our villages, you can be sure of many things. Sure that Summerset is a long established company that is highly regarded in the retirement sector. Sure that everything we have learned from providing a warm and welcoming home to over 1400 New Zealanders goes into the home we provide for you.

ThREE pRoMiSES WE MakE WhEn yoU CoME To livE aT SUMMERSET


our design, and using our proven devel-opment ability to deliver the right prod-uct,” says Norah.

Summerset is the first village opera-tor in New Zealand to voluntarily place accessibility standards on to its new builds. “By incorporating accessibility in our design thinking we do not add any meaningful amount to the cost of build and we are able to make our offering appealing to a much wider audience.” It was during the time this decision was made that Summerset teamed up with independent design assessor Lifemark. The Lifemark trademark was developed through the disabled community ands based upon the concepts of universal de-sign, meaning homes are designed and built to be more accessible, more adapt-able and work for everyone – regardless of age, stage or mobility. The Lifemark standards are perfect for retirement vil-lage residents who face a range of acces-sibility challenges that change as they grow older

While the Lifemark trademark isn’t mandatory in homes across New Zea-land, it has worked to ensure the needs of the consumers are met as they change

over time. The Lifemark trademark has been positively received by consumers since it was established in 2009, with many calling for it to be the standard in every new home.

The future of Summerset Summerset expects to see more people and more people choose its villages. The high standard of care provision avail-able in each village, as well as the acces-sibility features which they offer makes the company an incredibly attractive option. Summerset is currently a rela-tively large company in the industry, with 13different villages, but there are no plans to slow down with demand for the Summerset offering increasing ex-ponentially. The future of Summerset is looking bright. The company currently has enough development to double its size over the next five years. Summerset is also actively looking to acquire new sites and develop new villages across New Zealand over the next decade. “The demand will continue to increase for our offering, and I believe our brand will be a household name representing the best on offer in the market in our customers and staff eyes,” says Norah. o

4

Further to these assurances, Summerset gives you three absolute promises, to help make your decision easier.

First promise – to give you a choice of homes so that you can choose a real home that is purpose-designed for your stage of life.

Second promise – should you need a little extra help or care, this can be provided to you in your own home. We also have care apartments and in most villages Care Centres should these suit you or your partner better.

Third promise – if you do not love our friendly welcome, our way of life, the services we offer and most importantly the home you have chosen, within ninety days you are free to move on and we will refund your money in full.*

*Some conditions apply, available from your Village Manager.

THE RIGHT HOMEChoose a home that’s ideal for your stage of life.

THE RIGHT CAREAt the right time, in the place that’s right for you.LOVE IT – OR YOUR MONEY BACK*

90 days to be sure your new home is right – or your money back.

When you come to one of our villages, you can be sure of many things. Sure that Summerset is a long established company that is highly regarded in the retirement sector. Sure that everything we have learned from providing a warm and welcoming home to over 1400 New Zealanders goes into the home we provide for you.

ThREE pRoMiSES WE MakE WhEn yoU CoME To livE aT SUMMERSET


Twilight Aged Care is a not for profit, commu-nity based organisation with a legacy. It was established nearly 100 years ago, in 1912, orig-inally named Twilight House. In 1915, they opened their first home in Mosman, New South Wales. “We grew largely by donations,” says John Stuart, CEO. “Our first three homes were all donations. They were initially residential homes, but we developed them into facilities.” Recently, Twilight Aged Care closed the original home in Mosman and purchased an established home in Gladesville, and now has 160 residents between all of their locations.

Before Twilight Aged Care, Stuart spent about 30 years working in the New South Wales health system in a variety of roles. “I decided that 30 years was enough and I wanted to do something else,” he laughs. He got a call from a recruiter and ended up at Twilight in 2004.


Today he runs the business as CEO, and because he has a clinical background, he says he has a keen insight into the care delivery system and process. In his new role, Stuart and his chairman have gone to great lengths of modernise and improve the company.

A changing industryStuart has put so much effort into re-inventing his systems because, in the time he has been there, aged care has changed quite a bit. One factor behind that change is the government bring-ing aged care under the federal system, which has resulted in an increase in quality compliance standards. “I think the bar has been lifted in terms of qual-ity of care that is provided to older Aus-tralians over the last 10 years,” says


Stuart. “Having said that, it doesn’t come easy because there are people who might say aged care is the most regulat-ed industry in Australia, in terms of the frameworks we have to work within.” Managing care requirements and expec-tation with the money received through government subsidies is difficult, Stu-art says, because those subsidies do not keep up with inflation. And as the qual-ity of aged care in Australia has goes up, so does the cost. Thus, managing money is important. “Twilight, like most other providers, has an investment strategy to augment returns from accumulated sur-pluses and accommodation bonds and we are fortunate to have JB Were as our partners,” says Stuart. “Our investment committee has a strong mandate and JB Were assists us with information on the market, trends, benchmarking perfor-

http://www.quicksew.com.au


mance of our investments against the ASX 200 and other indicators. The last three years have been very unstable, however our strong management of our funds under investment and the strate-gic decisions we have made has main-tained our portfolio in a healthy state.”Still, contending with costs can be a challenge. “The cost of providing a build-ing that meets market expectations is enormous and as providers we’re feeling pressed, because we don’t get the busi-ness until we offer the product – but the economics don’t stack up.” The chari-table sector is responsible for delivering a very large proportion of aged care, so

that means there is a lot of burden on them to provide the services that people require. The expectations of families seeking care have also changed over re-cent years. Baby boomers making deci-sions on accommodation for their ageing parent has raised the bar in terms of the quality of accommodation available and the ambiance of the facility. “We have worked with Quicksew for many years when refurbishing our facilities,” says Stuart. “Their range of hard and soft fur-nishings is wide and keeping with our domestic feel in our homes has allowed us to move away from the highly insti-tutional look and feel seen so often en-


countered in aged care environments.” However, the increased expectations do come at a cost to providers and places further pressure on their capital expen-diture, where those funds are limited.

These are just some of the challenges. The solution, Stuart says, is the govern-ment anteing up. “One of the options that the industry has been lobbying for is accommodation bounds in high care,” he says. In other words, the government needs to free up more capital to accom-modate people coming into the industry with high care needs. The Productivity Commission has made recommenda-tions around that, and we’re hoping the government will pick them up.” At the end of the day, he says, if the govern-ment is going to sponsor care delivery then they’ll have to spend more.

Another aspect of the aged care system that has changed since Stuart started his latest job was the age of people en-tering the industry. New residents are becoming older and older, because the money delivered into community based services designed to keep people in their own homes has increased tenfold over the last 10 years. “Now I think that’s a wonderful thing because people want to stay in their own home and stay in their community,” Stuart says. “It does mean, though, that people coming to us are older and have more advanced health problems, which means the burden of care on aged care providers is greater.” Only five years ago, the average resi-dent would enter the system with a low care classification, whereas today there is a greater proportion with high care classifications. Additionally, because of

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delayed entry into residential aged care, the overall length of stay has shortened. “We still have some residents who came into care 10 years ago, but the majority of new residents over the last 5 years particularly have a length of stay of 18 months.”

These are all challenges and changes that impact the entire industry, and that Stuart has had to tackle as CEO of Twilight. One challenge plaguing the industry that he has not had to contend with, however, is attracting and retain-ing a staff. “We don’t have difficulty in

that area, which is unusual because we’re in the north of Sydney. It’s an ex-pensive area to live in, so people who work for us generally travel some dis-tance to go to work.” This is a testament to the strong reputation Twilight Aged Care has as an employer – their staff are even known to refer their friends, and when Stuart put a classified ad on-line for a new administrative assistant, he received over 50 applications. “We’ve got a good network of people who like working for us,” Stuart says.

Because they are not starving for per-


JBWere acknowledges the philosophy and achievements of Twilight as an outstanding provider of Aged Care.

We look forward to continuing our partnership in the future.

The JBWere story is one of integrity, innovation and relationships. Our experts are committed to delivering first-class investment advice.

Congratulating Twilight Aged Care

To find out how we can assist you with your financial goals call:

Daniel Madhavan, State Manager 02 9321 8986 [email protected]

Tom Hayward, Executive Director 02 9321 8770 [email protected]

James Heritage, Adviser 02 9321 8518 [email protected]

jbwere.com

sonnel, Twilight is able to ensure to that the people they do have are quali-fied. “We made a decision a couple years ago that we were only going to employ care staff who completed an aged care qualification,” Stuart says. “Prior to my coming to the organisation there was an attitude that if you walked up to the door and you were breathing, you’d get a job.” After lifting the bar, Stuart said he noticed results immediately. “It’s im-proved the overall capacity we’ve had with staff in terms of them being able to deliver care.”

Ahead of the curveOne thing Stuart has focused on since joining Twilight Aged Care is moderni-sation. “Of the things we’ve really got ahead of the curve on is information

technology and working smarter,” he says. “The regulation, the record keep-ing and the requirements on us in terms of information management is enor-mous. We’re not quite paperless yet, but we will be shortly, and all our systems were implemented to create productiv-ity efficiencies or to improve our care delivery. We can spend time focusing on improving our business rather than maintaining data.” This is a big change from when Stuart first arrived, when everything was done manually. “Being smart about the way we use technology to improve care has also been a big focus for us,” says Stuart. “For example, we implemented the SIMAVITA continence assessment program to not only assess continence but also ensure that the resi-dent had the right product for their par-ticular needs. Who would have thought

http://www.jbwere.com


five years ago that a resident could wear a continence aid with an inbuilt trans-mitter to measure the frequency and vol-ume of a residents voiding pattern and send that information to our computer systems? Not only have we reduced the cost to residents by ensuring they have the correct product, but we have made them more comfortable, and we have improved our assessment process to en-sure we collect the appropriate funding for incontinent residents. It’s a win-win for everyone.”

Also, the shift to a paperless office has the dual benefit of being both productive and good for the environment, which is something Stuart says he is very focused on. “The amount of paper that’s used everywhere across the industry is enor-mous. As much as we can cut down not only our consumption of paper products, but our waste as well, it’s not only good for the environment but it is good for our balance sheet.” Twilight uses iCare Clinical Management Solution for all

its resident care documentation. “Our record keeping has improved signifi-cantly because of the simplicity of this system and we are capturing so much more information on the care planned and delivered to residents that we did on paper. The system has also resulted in productivity improvements for care staff as they can invest the extra time gained from reduced documentation ef-fort into care delivery. This system pro-vides the capacity to review resident re-cords from any location in the company, including my office,” says Stuart. “This is particularly useful if I am having a discussion with a relative about a care concern that they might have, as I can read up to date information on that resi-dent as we speak.”

Managing staff information can be fraught with difficulty, given the legis-lated requirements that must be met. “We implemented a staff management system, RosterLive, some years ago and achieved a productivity saving of 38


hours per fortnight in eliminating re-dundant manual labour processes,” Stu-art says. “All of our time and attendance data is managed electronically, and as well as direct efficiency gains, we have reduced our error rate in payroll pro-cessing to zero. This has been of most benefit to staff who can feel comfort-able that their pay each fortnight will be correct. Our managers can also see the impact directly on the budget from the rostering decisions that they make as they are preparing their rosters, and since our staff costs are approximately 80% of our expenditure this is an area of management that requires serious attention. Simplifying the process and having accurate up-to-date information ensures that our staffing expenditure does not become a runaway train.”

Because of the work Stuart has done with the company so far, the opportunities for the future and bountiful. “I’ve spent the last seven years focusing on getting the company into a robust position,” he says. Now, with that information technology in place, the competent and caring staff, and strong management team of Twi-light Aged Care can hit the ground run-ning on future developments. That was what happened with their latest home in Gladesville, for example. “We will con-tinue to look for opportunities to grow and expand, particularly in residential care. There may well be a future for us in other community based services as well.” The board and Stuart plan to continue to revisit their corporate strategy and look forward to expand their legacy another 100 years. o

http://www.rosterlive.com


When TLC Aged Care was born in 1991, the acronym stood for something in addition to “Tender Loving Care” – it also stood in place of The Leaper Corporation. That company was named after Dr. John Leaper, who found-ed TLC when he purchased two Victorian mansions operating as aged care facilities in Geelong. After realising that those buildings would not meet future consumer demands, he built TLC’s first modern facility in Wallington, calling it “The Homestead”. The Homestead set the standard of quality care for which ev-ery TLC home is now renowned. After a pe-riod of planning and preparation, Dr. Leaper and his team developed two new sites in the Melbourne metropolitan area. At that time, it was decided that a new corporate image was needed – one that would better reflect the organisation’s philosophies and objectives. Thus, the corporate branding of “Tender Lov-ing Aged Care” developed. The ongoing success of TLC Aged Care saw the addition of even more state-of-the art homes from 2004 to 2008, making for 9 resi


dences overall. Throughout that period of growth, TLC Aged Care made main-taining quality in all areas of service a priority. By November 2008, they could accommodate over 1,000 residents, and today they employ over 1,000 staff. As TLC Aged Care grew and evolved, so did its management structure, with Ingrid Williams eventually taking over the role of Chief Executive Officer. Williams herself was first em-ployed by TLC Aged Care over seven years ago, as the manager of one of their facilities. “From that point I moved into a Regional Manager position, looking after four of our homes,” she says. To-day, Ingrid is in her fifth year as CEO, having been appointed at the beginning

of 2007. In the seven years she’s been in the sector at large, she has seen it change significantly – especially where the Government is involved. “Regula-tion is a big focal point,” she says. “Over the last couple of years, when it comes to diversification of services and trying to meet the demands of future consum-ers, we’ve seen a shift from residential services to community based services.” That shift is the result of evolving cus-tomer needs – people want to stay in their own homes for as long as possible before they move into residential ser-vices, and the government is investing money into helping them. Williams says that while that is a positive change for elderly Australians, it does affect the


http://www.agedcaredev.com.au


aged care business. In response to these changes, TLC Aged Care has to adapt. “One of our future developments at Donvale, in Melbourne’s South East, is a build-ing in which we want to provide more flexibility around services and accom-modation,” says Williams. “It’s trying to bridge the gap between community and residential care services as we know it today.” As of now, all TLC buildings provide a full range of services includ-ing low care, high care, dementia ser-vices, and respite services – and going forward all existing facilities and future facilities will incorporate TLC’s ongo-ing changes. “Future developments will replicate what we’re doing at our new home in Donvale, and also we’ll look at the opportunity to then retrofit that model into our existing facilities for the

http://www.agedcaredev.com.au


future. The purpose of the Donvale proj-ect and TLC Aged Care’s next series of developments is to offer a more hotel or apartment-like living model,” Williams says. “We’d like to create a place where people can move into our facility and want to stay there for the rest of their lives. We want to appeal to couples in which one person may require care and the other doesn’t.” Because residents are entering aged care older, it is more common for residents to have already developed cog-nitive impairments. TLC Aged Care en-sures that it has the right staff to deal with those issues, and that they are al-ways operating on the cutting edge of treatment options. “Those that work in our dementia units are trained in that area, and have a special interest in it,” Williams says. “We are always looking

http://www.leebridgegroup.com.au


for ways in which we can improve what we offer that group of residents, and we always are a centre for innovation and quality. We are constantly looking for opportunities to bring in evidence based practice and make sure that what we’re doing is at the forefront of best prac-tice.” One way in which TLC Aged Care separates itself from other aged care providers is by focusing on the living part of aged care living, and taking the aged care part as a given. “We used to be moving towards a vision of being a leader in quality aged care,” Williams explains. “Now we want to be a leader in quality aged living. Living activities

and lifestyle activities are things we’re definitely focusing our attention on.” An example of such an activity is a supper club TLC Aged Care introduced across its nine homes. “One thing that we have noticed in the past is that very few ac-tivities get offered in the evenings,” Wil-liams says. “So once a month between 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. there’s an opportunity for entertainment, food, wine, family and friends to come and join the resi-dents.” When it comes to challenges that TLC Aged Care faces, Williams says the company is in good shape to deal with them as they come. “We have a robust policy and procedure system in place,


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which means if there are changes in reg-ulation, we are ready for them and can respond quickly,” she explains. “What’s probably more of a challenge – and is for the industry at large – is workforce planning and workforce management.” Like many aged care providers, TLC Aged Care can encounter difficulty is finding the right staff for their facilities. “That’s something that we’re constantly focusing our attention on and looking at new and innovative ways of doing things around recruiting and retention.” The retention side of that equation is par-ticularly important, so ensuring that there are good reward and recognition programs within their facilities is im-portant to TLC Aged Care. “One of our taglines is ‘Great Care and Great Ca-reers™’, so we put a lot of emphasis into making sure that we have career paths for our staff,” Williams says. When it

comes to the recruitment of staff, she says it is all about promoting the bene-fits that employees get by working with TLC Aged Care. Additionally, they have a number of strategic partnerships with schools and other organisations; they can bring in student nurses or trainee personal care workers, and those people will hopefully walk away with a good ex-perience, and a desire to continue work-ing for them once they are qualified. Over the next few years, TLC Aged Care has a strategic plan in place to re-fine their own performance and develop future models of aged facilities. Infor-mation technology, too, is something the company is investing a lot of time and effort into. In general, Williams says they are embarking on their next phase of growth – a phase that is sure to be successful whilst TLC Aged Care keeps living up to its name. o

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HelpingPEOPLELIVE LIFE AND FIND

A PLACE TO CALL HOME

Whether it is nestling in a quiet valley by the river, a short way from the bus-tling town centre, or hidden from the road by native bush land, Belrose Care has the perfect location for the enjoy-ment of quieter years. With four facili-ties to choose from, Belrose Care is sure to have the right type of care to offer, be it high, low or dementia-specific. Their privately-owned and fully-accredited aged care facilities are spaced across the Perth metropolitan area as far north as Joondalup, as far east as Maddington and Kelmscott, and as far south as Co-oloongup. Jeffrey Markoff, the Managing Di-rector of Belrose Care, came to Western Australia in 1995 from Victoria. He has two degrees in law but says he had to leave the field because he could not keep a straight face while sending legal bills. He is a registered builder and believes the high standard of his Aged Care fa-cilities is due to the fact he could super-vise the building standard himself. Markoff has had a colourful busi-ness life previous to the development of Belrose Care, working in the opal and


antique business as well as manufac-turing medical and exercise equipment for greyhound racing dogs – not to men-tion the fact that he was nearly the United Nations representative in Cam-bodia. That, however, is another story altogether, he says. “Aged Care is what I love and have been happy to make a difference,” Jeffrey says. “This is what I was meant to do.”

Their first facility, Tanby Hall, was built in Cooloongup in 1996. It was so well received, that a twelve bed ex-tension was granted to their Tanby Hall facility and a new permit was granted for Grandview Aged Care in Joondalup. This was the only facility in Australia to receive 100 per cent certification (licens-ing) for this type of building. Grandview sits on a hill and has wonderful views of


the surrounding areas. Belrose Care de-scribes the building as imposing, but in truth it is only imposing in the quality of its design, aesthetics, and recreation-al space. Of course, one of the notable aspects of their landscape is the inclu-sion of roses in many of their walks and greenery. These act as a symbol, and also give many residents an opportunity to engage in a bit of gardening themselves. The gardens, and especially roses, fea-ture strongly in the Belrose Care group. Some of the residents form gardening groups, others work alone, propagating, planting, trimming and enjoying their work with a love of gardening. The next facility that Belrose Care developed is their River Gardens, over-looking the Canning River. Presently, the West Australian Planning Authority has plans to landscape the area around

the facility, as well as land leading down to the river, which will be a value added project that will be enjoyed by both the residents and visiting families. The latest facility, Orange Grove, is dementia specific, and is set in two hectares of lawn and gardens. This is a wonderful asset to the people of Western Australia with the ever increasing need for this type of care. The management and staff at Belrose Care are proud of the outcomes they have achieved in the Aged Care sector. “Our population is liv-ing longer and needing more and more care to ensure those extra years are spent to maximise their quality of life,” Jeffrey says. The freedom that residents experience is part of their philosophy of offering not just a place to live, but a place to explore, enjoy and grow into. Belrose and Markoff believe in the idea

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of aging in place, and have put in place a system of levelled care that allows their residents to maintain a higher quality of lifestyle and freedom. Belrose offers a range of services, which include physiotherapy, podiatry, a visiting GP, occupational therapy and hairdressing. A variety of activities are offered to residents, both within the fa-cilities and on excursions to places or events of interest. From the operational side, their view is that each one of their residents is a unique and valued individual, with the same rights and expectations they had before they arrived. With this in mind, facility staff are carefully chosen and nurtured to feel part of the Belrose family. The Belrose philosophy is to

foster individuality and independence while at the same time offering sup-port where it is needed. Residents are encouraged towards maintaining their outside interests, as well as enjoying the many activities on offer at the facili-ties. The main areas of the buildings are air-conditioned and every resident has a private bedroom and ensuite. Each facility has its own laundry on site and provides nourishing and tasty home-cooked meals from its own kitch-en. Belrose has an open visiting policy, inviting relatives and friends to visit at any time. For a small cost, visitors may stay for lunch or dinner. Children are welcome but must, of course, be super-vised. o


The idea for National Lifestyle Villages came from a simple observation: people who spend

extended times in parks and resorts ex-perience a unique sense of low stress, security and community. Founding Di-rector John Wood grew up in caravan parks, and his father started Fleetwood Corporation, a company whose opera-tions are based around the sale of car-

avans and caravan accessories – so he had a strong association with the in-dustry. “He thought ‘Well, what if we could offer a permanent home experi-ence in a holiday or resort type atmo-sphere?’” recounts Mike Hollett, CEO of National Lifestyle Villages. That was how the idea first originated in the late ‘90s. Wood funded his first village, Lake Joondalup, soon after in 2000. 11 years


later, the company is on village number 10. At National Lifestyle Villages, they combine the carefree enjoyment of a vacation with the fulfilment of be-ing part of a community. The ambience is relaxed and fun, making National Lifestyle Villages more analogous to a resort then a retirement home. Of the over 2,000 people living in their various developments, the average age is 63 – a generation younger than the average resident of a retirement home. A third of their residents – alternatively called Lifestylers – still work a job, and have just downsized out of the suburbs. “Our residents are very get-up-and-go,” Hol-lett describes. “They are off to the gym,

to the pool, they have their Zumba class-es – they’re very active, and in a lot of cases they are still fully integrated into the external community through work and other activities.” Hollett himself started at Nation-al Lifestyle Villages back in 2008, when he was approached to be CEO. He was attracted to the opportunity primarily because he thought the land lease mod-el was interesting – since National Life-style Villages is leasing the land they are building on for 60 years, they are able to disconnect the house from the land and therefore the price points can be signifi-cantly lower. In some cases, their hous-es can even be 40 to 50 per cent cheaper than average. “We have so much land

Mal and Jo have never been in better shape


in Australia, and we have this housing affordability issue. It seems like a crazy situation to be in, when land is so read-ily available,” Hollett says. “It’s not like we have to fill in land, or create land so we’ve got more places to live. I think the market needs to mature and look at dif-ferent models. Owning the land is not the key.”

An expanding village

National Lifestyle Villages has experi-enced rapid growth and considerable success over the course of its lifetime. They established their first village, Lake Joondalup, in the northern metro suburb of Ashby in 2000. Lake Joonda-

Mal and Jo have never been in better shape


lup has 315 homes, and sold out within three years. After that, they established their second village of Pineview down the road – literally, a kilometre and a half away. Pineview has over 230 homes and sold out quickly as well. “One vil-lage led to another,” recalls Hollett, and in 2005 they commenced their Bridge-water village in Mandurah, which has 384 home sites and is now almost fully sold as well. After Bridgewater, they came up with their Hillview village in High Wy-combe, which has 266 home sites, and is now sold out as well. Later came the Busselton village, located on the South-ern Coast with 235 homes, of which two-thirds are currently sold. The sixth vil-

lage, Vibe in Baldivis, was when Hollett came on board. Hollett then oversaw the construction of their premium vil-lage, Tuart Lakes, which has 470 home sites and is located over 24 hectares of land. “That one has premium facilities and homes starting from 249,000 up to 380,000 dollars,” Hollett says. Hot on the heels of Tuart was Oyster Harbour in Albany, with 235 home sites. Finally, National Lifestyle crossed the border into Victoria with their Lakeside Lara village. Their display homes for that site open in February, and presales are already looking strong. Early in his tenure at Nation-al Lifestyle Villages, Hollett and the management team diversified and de-


veloped a building company in EcoFit Homes. “We realised it would be a good proposition to build the homes we put into our own villages so we can have greater control, and at the same time offer another service,” he explains. That company was established in November of 2008, and like National Lifestyle Vil-lages, it has been steadily on the rise since the word go. Last year alone, they built 220 homes – “Which is exciting,” Hollett says, “because it served our own villages, and we were also successful in putting a significant number of homes in Karratha in the northwest of West-ern Australia.” As with their core busi-ness, EcoFit built those homes under a

Being Part of aCOMMUNITY

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land lease model, so they have also been providing affordable homes to service workers in desperate need of accommo-dation.

A light footprint

Because National Lifestyle Villages will be occupying the same space for a mini-mum of 60 years, they are responsible for maintaining land they are using. “It’s important to the group and to the employees because we believe in having a light footprint on the land,” Hollett says. It is critical for National Lifestyle Villages to be efficient in utilising en-ergy and water, as well as in managing their waste streams, because that di-

rectly impacts them and their residenc-es. For this reason, they have added re-cycling centres to their grounds, have implemented water recycling schemes, and even have their own wastewater treatment plant. Hollett himself used to work as a senior Executive for the Wa-ter Corporation, where he led key sus-tainability initiatives in water recycling and efficiency, so he has experience in this arena. Also, because the company acts as both the builder and developer, it is able to exercise a lot of control over how their homes are built, and where they are lo-cated. In this way, National Lifestyle Villages is able to ensure their homes are optimally placed to harvest solar en-

You are in SAFE HANDS


ergy, which reduces their residents heat-ing and cooling costs. “We do try to look at the whole thing,” Hollett says. “Right now we’re looking at our supply chain and the impact of the new carbon legis-lation.” With every new village, Hollett says they take another step forward in being more innovative in their sustain-ability practices, and their waste water and energy management.

Quality culture

The employee count at National Life-style Villages is spread across several main departments, such as their vil-lage services, their management, and their construction development sector. They also have a business development

team, an internal design team, and sev-eral hundred subcontractors who work every day to build the homes. “We’ve got a lot of disciplines covered because in very simple terms we’re a developer, we’re a builder, and we’re a manager,” Hollett says. “That’s a simple message, but it’s quite a unique one because you don’t generally find all three at once.” When recruiting, Hollett has to consider different qualities for different departments, but in general he is look-ing for people inspired to service the se-nior living market. “They have to have an affinity with providing a service ori-ented culture to that sector,” he says. “I think its important people get that. The

http://www.plelectrical.com.au


other cultural fits are around environ-mental standing – we’re always looking for people who innovate along those lines because it’s a very important flavour to what we do.” Finally, their employees need to be flexible, as National Lifestyle Villages is evolving and changing all the time and their personnel need to be able to keep up. Having quality employees is nec-essary to fostering a quality commu-nity – and the quality of the National Lifestyle Village communities is one of their chief selling points. “We have a very strong culture and strong village policies,” Hollett says. “It’s our resi-dents community, but we’re there as a

manager.” While the management is friendly, if a resident does the wrong thing, Hollett says they will always in-tervene and make sure the right thing ultimately happens. “I think it’s impor-tant that they know we’ll make sure we’re managing their community at all times,” he explains. “Our culture in the villages is open and friendly – the man-agers always have coffees and morning tea where people can come with enqui-ries, and we have a formal get-together once a month.” Additionally, National Lifestyle Villages fosters social commu-nity networks, clubs, and hosts events. “People can choose to take as much or as little of that as they like.”

Spend more time WITH FAMILY


Another of National Lifestyle Vil-lages’ chief selling points is their facili-ties. Those vary from village to village, but each location always has clubhous-es, open areas for entertaining, lounges, formal seating areas, and A-class kitch-ens to serve large meals and cater for events. Also, they have gymnasiums and swimming pools – some outdoor, most indoor. Select villages even have indoor cinemas, squash courts, tennis courts, bowling facilities, and more. “Generally anything you would expect to find if you were joining your local gym or local clubs,” Hollett sum-

marises. “We’ve got most of those fa-cilities covered, and you can just walk down the road and use them when you want to. The facilities are of a very high standard, are well maintained, and we’re very proud of them. They truly of-fer that lifestyle, as well as a wellness component to living. We know if people are fitter and happier they generally live longer and enjoy life a bit more.” Looking forward, Hollett says they will continue to offer a premium level of accommodation at the villages already built, as well as continue to ex-pand nationally. He also says that they have been asked by some of the major mining companies of Australia to look at village style accommodation for their employees, so he sees a very promising opportunity in that area. “We see us having a strong portfolio in senior living and an emerging diversification into re-sources,” he says. By 2020, he sees their resident count growing from the 2,000 they have today to as high as 10,000. “I think we can grow quite quickly,” he says. “I think the next decade will be a strong decade.” o

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