The healthcare transformation challenge: delivering more care with diminishing resources

Australian healthcare organisations are constantly being asked to do more with less — and the gap between demand and capacity is only widening. Aging and growing populations are pushing more people and organisations into a system that was never designed to absorb the current and forecast levels of pressure.

At the same time, healthcare leaders are being asked to improve patient outcomes, address entrenched workforce shortages, accelerate digital transformation, and strengthen cyber resilience — all while budgets remain flat or shrinking, and scrutiny from regulators, boards and the public intensifies.

To gain more insight into these challenges, Hospital + Healthcare spoke with Tony Mahoney, Head of Healthcare & Emergency Services – National at Nexon Asia Pacific, who has spent years working directly with public hospitals and other health services across Australia, helping them navigate exactly this balancing act. His perspective is shaped by the day-to-day realities of healthcare delivery, from frontline clinical environments to the operational functions that keep health services running.

Growing demand, diminishing capacity

The starting point for almost every healthcare leader’s dilemma is a simple mismatch: demand for services is growing faster than capacity to deliver them. This forces hard prioritisation decisions. Sometimes digital transformation projects get delayed or scaled back to protect frontline clinical spending, even when that technology could ultimately reduce pressure on frontline services, so it is important to make sure that digitalisation projects are as efficient as possible and fit for purpose — keeping patient outcomes top of mind.

“Healthcare organisations face challenges that are very different from those in many other industries,” said Mahoney. “It’s important that ICT strategies are aligned to the priorities of clinicians, operational teams and the communities they serve, which is why Nexon has set up totally dedicated healthcare services.

“The way we look at it here at Nexon is to focus on patient care, and where it is best for funding to go in ICT infrastructure and software to be able to achieve those outcomes. We have personnel dedicated to focusing only on services for healthcare and emergency services, because when you don’t do that, priorities can become misaligned or it becomes harder to keep patient outcomes at the centre of decision-making.”

Workforce sustainability

It is well known that workforce shortages sit underneath almost every other pressure that healthcare organisations face. In this environment, technology’s role shifts: it isn’t just about efficiency or modernisation, it’s about protecting the people already inside the system from being overwhelmed.

Instead of asking “what can this system do?”, the question that needs to be asked is: “does this reduce the burden on our clinical and administrative staff, or does it just give them one more thing to learn and maintain?”

“This may seem obvious, but in the case of a code blue for example, technology can be used to create greater efficiencies,” said Mahoney. “What people don’t talk about enough in health care, however, is the stress and anxiety faced by healthcare workers.

“Emergency departments are very high-stress, high-impact environments, therefore we don’t just look at how we are delivering an ICT product into that environment, but also how we can reduce the impact and the stress on the individuals that are working there. By improving workflows for the staff members to move through — whether that be voice systems, data systems, or the duress system, or wayfinding through a large hospital — we make sure that we find the best scenario that reduces the most risk for staff.”

Building trust and safeguards alongside automation is increasingly what separates successful workforce-relief projects from those that create new problems, according to Mahoney.

“From a practical standpoint, we know that the delivery of the technology also revolves around funding and business decisions, so when we do this, we need to look at how we can reduce the stress of making changes to an existing work environment,” he explained. “So, when we do a major uplift of a hospital technology, we will have staff on site, with trainers walking the floors just to make sure everyone’s okay. One thing we’ve learned over the years is that if you don’t do that, it just takes someone to ‘miss the memo’ and all of a sudden there can be a problem, potentially when you least need it.”

Having respect for the work of healthcare professionals is also fundamental to successful ICT delivery outcomes.

“I know I can’t do a nurse’s job or a doctor’s job or a medical imaging person’s job,” Mahoney added. “If I have to get an X-ray, they are the most polite people: talking you through what has to happen, and helping you through the process — they are built that way. At Nexon we try to find people to work for us that are built the same way, but work in ICT, so they can give that same respect to the healthcare workers.”

From digital investment to measurable outcomes

Digital transformation has become close to mandatory language in every healthcare strategy document in the country. The National Digital Health Strategy sets the direction nationally, and each state and territory has its own digital health plan.

“The health system in New South Wales for example has got a clear goal to move towards more digital capabilities,” said Mahoney. “In this digital age, everything needs to move towards digital, so that being ‘digital ready’ is the number one thing that hospitals should do. Then your records are digital, your medical imaging is passed through digitally — and we have to move to that environment. Our goal is to help provide that digital readiness.”

However, a piecemeal approach to transformation and engaging multiple disconnected vendors can lead to digital transformation efforts stalling. This heightens the importance of integration, interoperability and technology partners that can help simplify complexity across the digital ecosystem.

“As healthcare organisations continue to invest in digital technologies, one of the biggest challenges is ensuring all of those systems work together effectively,” said Mahoney. “Whether it’s infrastructure, communications, clinical support systems or operational platforms, the goal should be to create a connected environment that supports clinicians and improves the experience for patients.”

Building resilient healthcare organisations

Unfortunately, health care remains one of the most heavily targeted sectors for cyberattacks in Australia. On top of this, smaller regional hospitals and health services are frequently expected to meet the same cybersecurity and availability expectations as large metropolitan providers without anything close to the same budget or specialist resourcing.

“This is a really difficult problem, because we find they often don’t have budgets to keep up with technology,” said Mahoney. “It’s not just the ICT and voice systems either: there are usually medical devices on the network that need things like firmware upgrades.

“Healthcare environments are complex, with technology investments often needing to support operational and clinical requirements over many years,” said Mahoney. “Medical devices and critical systems also have different lifecycle considerations compared with other industries. This requires a thoughtful approach to planning, risk management and ongoing technology investment.

“This is where Nexon is unique. We have developed a deep understanding of the environment. We know how to put risk mitigation in place. We know how to look at or take the environment in a holistic form and break it down so that we can find a window to do the work. And we work with all the parties, whether it’s at a hospital, an emergency service or triple zero.

“That said, a lot of the healthcare organisations out there do a very good job of cyber risk management with what they have to work with,” Mahoney added.

Balancing the priorities

None of these four pressures — growing demand, workforce sustainability, digital investment and resilience — can be solved in isolation. They interact constantly: an under-resourced digital project heightens cyber exposure; workforce shortages push organisations toward automation without proper safeguards; cost pressure delays the very investments that would relieve future demand.

What’s clear is that healthcare leaders no longer have the luxury of treating these as separate workstreams with separate budgets and separate owners. Decisions made in one area increasingly have implications across the organisation, reinforcing the need for a coordinated approach.

“We understand the hospital environment, we understand the underlying technologies, and we take responsibility for making those technologies work together in support of clinical care,” said Mahoney.

About Tony

With over three decades of industry leadership, Tony Mahony serves as National Director, Healthcare & Emergency Services at Nexon Asia Pacific. A trusted advisor to executives across Australia’s health and emergency sectors, Tony specialises in translating complex operational challenges into practical, high-impact strategies. He is dedicated to helping organisations strengthen long-term resilience and harness technology that directly supports the clinicians, frontline teams, and communities who rely on them every day.

Top image credit: iStock.com/Drazen Zigic