Better, Faster, Stronger: How Peter Bartlett Automates his Allied Health Business Operations

Having spent 35 years within the disability sector – including setting up NDIS-registered businesses – Peter Bartlett knows how to automate business practices for smooth-running operations.

Meet Peter 

Peter Bartlett knows the business of disability services inside and out.

Having spent 35 years within the industry across the public sector and business operations management, Peter has worked for Disability Services Commission and Department of Communities, and has set up a handful of small NDIS-registered businesses – one of which grew into a large organisation. 

But when Peter was tired of years of daily three-hour commutes, he began working closer to home. Peter joined brick-and-mortar The Hub in WA in 2020, an Allied Health group practice offering support from paediatricians, psychiatrists, clinical psychologists, speech pathologists, social workers and occupational therapists. 

Today, as The Hub’s NDIS Manager, Peter provides NDIS guidance to over a dozen therapists, organising their audit, registration and compliance, and getting them geared up on new NDIS-compliant software – ShiftCare.

The challenge 

“It was just a bog-standard Excel spreadsheet,” says Peter, remembering how things were first running at The Hub. Knowing successful businesses run on well-oiled systems and processes, Peter went to look for new software to support The Hub’s vast administration. 

Alas, the first option was no success: “They had a software package, incredibly capable and it can do many, many things, but it also costs, many, many dollars,” he laughs. “When I gave them the price, that scared the directors and it never happened.”

With more research, The Hub luckily found its match: “Of all the software packages that were available, ShiftCare was the standout in terms of value for money and still meeting the needs.”

During the set-up period, Peter feels particularly thankful for ShiftCare’s service: “The experience has been completely positive, particularly on Andrew who has been overly accommodating. He's always had the answers or found the answer pretty promptly for me.”

On 16 August 2021, The Hub celebrated going live with ShiftCare.

The solution 

“Going live with ShiftCare was a big turning point for us,” says Peter.

“Up until that time, they were working with a spreadsheet, which was diabolically bad. So, the professionalism and the access to data we've gotten that we never had before – it's reduced our labour costs significantly or at least will in the long term.”

Peter recognises standout features for his specific Allied Health business.

Easier NDIS document management

Firstly, it’s much easier to keep up to date with NDIS care plans and other documents with ShiftCare. 

“The Excel spreadsheet had no red flagging system at all. We know, through ShiftCare, when plans are going to expire we've got plenty of notice. It tells us in advance, we don't have to go searching through 300 lines of spreadsheet stuff to try and track it,” he says.

Robust reporting features

As a manager, what Peter loves most about ShiftCare is its user-friendly, fast and accurate ability to collect and analyse payroll and financial information.

“I do a lot of analytical work around who's paid, who hasn't paid, what sort of ratios we're running at, what percentages are planned or self managed or agencies. That back end reporting is really important from a management point of view that gives me control over what's going on in the big picture information.”

On top of this, adds Peter, “It’s delivered in a straightforward, understandable format that makes sense.”

Effective automation

All of this is steps towards a big goal for The Hub: “The end result will be that all the activities we were manually doing will be automated,” says Peter.

“We were manually receiving every invoice and manually entering everything. And that's all done in bulk, and we're just finalising the processes now of automating the receipting process. There was a full time job there for one person just doing the receipting and uploading every day. If that's replaced with 10 minutes of button clicking automation, that's great, that's where we're heading!”

Looking ahead 

Such automated backend processes allow Peter to focus on other important areas of business management. And with this freed up time, he is also looking forward to better work-life balance.

“If ShiftCare wasn’t in place, that wouldn’t be possible. Because the old system, it was just so laborious, it just wasn’t an option,” he says.

Thanks to the software, Peter is working smarter, not harder. At ShiftCare, we’re proud to be of continuing rock-support to The Hub’s operations.



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