Home care is now clinical care

For decades, home care was positioned as the “low care” end of the system - practical support designed to keep people independent and comfortable at home. That definition no longer fits the reality on the ground.

Home care is becoming clinical.

In an interview with Caroline Lee, CEO of Leecare, and Chris Baynes, CEO of the DCM Group, the conversation quickly moved beyond software and into a much bigger shift now reshaping home care.

As Caroline Lee explains, older Australians are now entering home care with higher and more complex needs - multiple chronic conditions, cognitive decline, and greater clinical risk, while hospitals and residential care struggle with capacity. The result is a quiet but significant transfer of responsibility into the home.

What was once a largely social and functional service is increasingly defined by assessment, judgement and clinical oversight.

This shift has profound implications for providers. Even where care packages remain modest, expectations have changed. Operators are now required to understand a person’s medical background, identify emerging risks, assess changes over time, and know when to escalate. In effect, clinical assessment is becoming the foundation of safe home care, not an optional extra.

The challenge, Caroline notes, is that this work is happening in a non-clinical environment. Staff are often working alone, in private homes, without the immediate backup found in hospitals or residential settings. The risk profile is fundamentally different, and higher, for both clients and organisations.

The response, she argues, cannot be to turn home care into an institutional experience. Nor can it rely on more paperwork or heavier compliance processes. Instead, providers need systems and structures that support staff to make the right decisions, consistently, while keeping care personal and human.

Chris Baynes agrees the sector is at an inflection point. Policy reform, workforce pressure and consumer expectations to remain at home for as long as possible are converging fast. Providers who continue to treat home care as low-risk support will struggle to keep pace.

Those who recognise that home care is entering a clinical era, and adapt their models, governance and tools accordingly, will be better positioned to deliver care that is both safe and sustainable.

This first conversation sets the scene for a broader series examining what “clinical care at home” really means, how risk and accountability are shifting, and why technology is becoming essential infrastructure rather than a headline feature.

Home care is no longer the softer edge of the system.
It is becoming one of its most critical.