Building mutually respectful relationships
It pays to be proactive, strategic and loyal, says Lee Carissa – chief executive officer of Cranbrook Care – who answers our questions on aged care procurement.
How many facilities, services, residents, clients, and staff are within your procurement remit?
Cranbrook Care operates five residential aged care facilities with almost 500 residents, and two retirement villages looking after 150 clients.
What are the main goods and services you procure?
The main goods and services we procure are food, cleaning services, gardening, IT services and allied health services.
What procurement channels and management technology do you use?
Cranbrook Care has a group systems and asset manager who is responsible for reviewing procurement processes and contracts across the business. Where possible we regularly tender for contract renewals to ensure we are always achieving the best products for our residents whilst maintaining value and cost effectiveness for the business. We draw efficiencies by grouping contracts to cover all our residences where possible, especially in the Sydney area.
We have one outlying home on the Central Coast where we utilise local suppliers and contractors. This serves to support the local community and minimise freight charges.
Our stakeholders and leadership teams regularly review contractor performance to ensure our expected level of service delivery is maintained.
What roles do environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) and care recipients play in your organisation’s procurement process?
Environmental, social and corporate governance are extremely important in aged care as we strive to provide excellent services whilst being fiscally responsible for our residents and clients.
We prioritise organisations that adhere to fair labour standards, promote diversity in their workforce and support the needs and preferences of our residents. We also prioritise those with strong governance structures and ethical standards that support our business model.
We are loyal to our suppliers and contractors
Where are your supply chain bottlenecks and how do you navigate them?
We are loyal to our suppliers and contractors who continue to deliver the best service to our residents. We pride ourselves on building strong and mutually respectful relationships with our providers by communicating regularly and openly around the needs of the business and the residents we support. This has worked well for us, particularly during times of external business disruption, such as the pandemic.
As was the case with every industry, we experienced supply chain issues. We found our suppliers and contractors were very supportive of our needs and went above and beyond to provide the services they were contracted to deliver.
What other procurement challenges is your organisation facing and how are you addressing them?
Procurement for a growing business is vitally important and managing costs effectively while maintaining quality standards is an ongoing challenge. Technology adaptation in this space has been a focus over the past six months as we are implementing a new procurement integration with our accounts payable system. This integration will allow us to have clearer visibility of our accounts payable and procurement options which in turn will allow us to further drive efficiencies in the business.
What advice do you have for your counterparts?
By addressing procurement challenges proactively and implementing strategic initiatives, we can improve service delivery to better meet the needs of our residents in the ever-changing workspace of aged care.
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